Africa Business Radio

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases says South African scientists have detected a new coronavirus variant with multiple mutations but are yet to establish whether it is more contagious or able to overcome the immunity provided by vaccines or prior infection.The variant, known as C.1.2, was flagged last week by the KwaZulu-Natal Research and Innovation and Sequencing Platform in a preprint study that has yet to be peer-reviewed. NICD scientists say C.1.2 was only present at very low levels and that it was too early to predict how it might evolve.NICD researcher Penny Moore says they do not have experimental data to confirm how it reacts in terms of sensitivity to antibodies.