gabe gutierrez in new york tonight thank you. as you heard some of the first alarm bells about this new variant came from south africa where scientists quickly identified it after seeing a covid surge in an area where cases dropped off. richard engel spoke with one of those scientists. >> reporter: gauteng province which surrounds johannesburg is south africa's most populus district and it's what's happening here that's triggered alarm in south africa and now around the world we have been following gauteng for over a year, a district of poor townships only 24% of south africa's population is fully vaccinated gauteng has been hit by wave after wave of covid. cases had dropped off recently because people had already been infected or been vaccinated then along came omicron. dr. richard lessels is one of the first scientists to study the new variant's genetics. >> this is all happening very recently three weeks ago in gauteng province, the case numbers were