Asked and answered: Six things you need to know about the new Covid-19 variant in South Africa
21 Jan 2021
Following the December announcement of the new variant, researchers have been working to answer key questions about what this means for South Africa’s epidemic. (Sebastian Kahnert/picture alliance via Getty Images)
South Africa’s department of health gathered the country’s best and brightest for a virtual briefing on Monday evening. Here scientists presented the latest findings on a variant of the new Covid-19 called 501Y.V2.
This variant was first identified in South Africa in 2020 by a genomics team led by the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform (KRISP) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.