While the incidence of the UK variant seemed to be declining, the double mutant variant B.1.617 - found in Maharashtra - could be a cause of the current surge seen over the last one and half months, said Sujeet Singh, director, National Centre for Disease Control.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) have called for a travel ban to be issued against India due to the Covid-19 variant first identified in that country.
Mkhize: SA has measures in place to deal with COVID-19 variant found in India While there are no direct flights from India to South Africa, there are fears that this variant could spread to the rest of the world fast. FILE: Health Minister Zweli Mkhize visited Steve Biko Hospital on 19 January 2021, as part of an oversight tour of Gauteng s healthcare facilities. Picture: Boikhutso Ntsoko/Eyewitness News
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JOHANNESBURG - Health Minister Zweli Mkhize on Wednesday said that while he shared the worries of South Africans about possible imports of COVID-19 variants, he believed that South Africa was a very capable nation that knows how to deal with the burden of a variant of concern.
B.1.617 variant not detected in SA yet but authorities on alert - Mkhize Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said that this increase in detection at ports of entry is of deep concern and he promised that government was attending to the matter with urgency. Health Minister Zweli Mkhize (right) at briefing at the Charlotte Maxeke Hospital in Johannesburg on 20 April 2021. Picture: @GautengHealth/Twitter
3 hours ago
JOHANNESBURG - Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said that while the B.1.617 variant circulating widely in India had not been detected in South Africa yet, genomics teams were working on some samples to determine whether South Africa has been impacted.