WHO CONFIRMS COVID VARIANT ‘SUBSTANTIALLY’ MORE INFECTIOUS

Fri 25 December 2020:

The World Health Organization (WHO) in Europe met on Wednesday to discuss the new coronavirus variant, which has wreaked havoc on the UK and caused high alert across Europe.

The WHO’s European region comprises 53 countries, including Russia and several Central Asian nations. In total,the region has registered nearly 24 million coronavirus cases and over 500,000 deaths.

Live Q&A on the new #COVID19 virus variant with WHO, @CovidGenomicUK & @sangerinstitute experts https://t.co/QoRQcmjCfj

— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) December 23, 2020

In response to reports of a growing #COVID variant #vui2020, @WHO_Europe convenes DGs of Health, Chief Medical Officers & other gov. reps in the Region. The session is a swift step to understand the epi. data & align responses in light of new challenges as #COVID19 cases surge.

— WHO/Europe (@WHO_Europe) December 23, 2020

WHO Europe said it gathered its members to discuss strategies to counter the new, more infectious variant:

“This will be a closed, expert meeting, not a planning meeting, and is an opportunity for UK health authorities to provide an update on the situation and take associated questions,” a WHO spokeswoman said.

In a tweet, the UN health organ said it found a “substantial increase in transmission of the virus but no evidence yet of increased severity” from the new variant.

WHO also said that “rapid studies” were underway to “examine clinical severity and reinfection” potential, while adding that the variant was found more frequently among younger age groups.

Second wave of Covid-19 infections in South Africa

Scientists and officials have warned the country’s 56 million people that the new variant, referred to as 501.V2, carries a heavier viral load and appears to be more prevalent among the young.

“It is still very early but at this stage, the preliminary data suggests the virus that is now dominating in the second wave is spreading faster than the first wave,” Prof Salim Abdool Karim, the chairman of the government’s ministerial advisory committee (MAC), said.

South Africa may see “many more cases” in the new wave than it experienced earlier this year, Abdool Karim said.

Prof Ian Sanne, a member of the MAC, said the variant detected in South Africa was not the same as that identified in the UK.

“There are two different viruses but they are different variants of the same strain of the coronavirus,” Sanne told local media.

After a first wave peaked in July and August, the daily total for new cases fell dramatically. However, the number of new infections began to rise steeply at the beginning of December, reaching 11,000 earlier this week.

Dr Richard Lessells, a leading infectious disease expert in South Africa, said it was still unclear how effective existing vaccines would be against the variant. Another concern was the possibility of reinfection of people who had already caught Covid-19.

“There are a few more concerns with our variant [than that in the UK] for the vaccine … But we are now doing the careful, methodical work in the lab to answer all the questions we have, and that takes time,” he said.

Vaccines for between 3% and 10% of the population are unlikely to be available for at least six months, experts believe.

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