Spread of Covid-19 variants found in UK, India is inevitable, says expert
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Cape Town - The detection of new Covid-19 variants is inevitable and as people continue to travel across the world, the variants will continue to spread.
Director of the KZN Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform (Krisp) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Professor Tulio de Oliveira, said 15 Covid-19 variants originating from other countries had been detected in South Africa.
Four cases of the dominant variant in India (B.1.617.2) were detected in South Africa over the weekend and 11 of the dominant variant in the UK (B.1.1.7).
Two people from Gauteng and another two from KwaZulu-Natal, all with the B.1.617.2 strain, all had a history of recent arrivals from India.
WATCH Covid-19 weekly round-up: Travellers will be monitored for virus variants
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In an effort to contain the spread of the virus variants from India and the UK, the Network for Genomic Surveillance in South Africa (NGS-SA) has intensified the monitoring of confirmed Covid-19 cases from travellers arriving in South Africa.
This is according to Professor Tulio de Oliveira, director of the KZN Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform.
De Oliveira said there had been a number of other samples from cases with recent travel into South Africa that are currently being sequenced and results are expected within the next few days.
Still, we have to focus on maintaining NPIs and avoiding social gatherings, two experts say
They also stressed the importance of scaling up vaccination, testing, contact tracing, and isolation
Covid-19 cases continue to overwhelm hospitals in India as the country deals with a new coronavirus variant, known as B.1.617. Meanwhile, South Africans need to “keep calm and keep focused”.
These are the words of Professor Tulio de Oliveira, director of KRISP, who told Health24 that although the variant hasn’t been detected in South Africa, our behaviour is still central to the transmission of the virus and how fast it spreads.
Quarantine more effective than a complete travel ban â health experts
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Cape Town â As the government deliberate on how to control borders in order to prevent the spread of Covid-19 and its mutations, health experts say a quarantine will be more efficient than a complete ban on travel.
Calls for South Africa to impose a travel ban from India are growing among local politicians and the public as the country has recently become the world s new Covid-19 epicentre, recording hundreds of thousands of new infections and thousands of deaths daily.
The World under quarantine. Cartoon: Bethuel Mangena/African News Agency(ANA)
Wednesday 5 May 2021 - 7:00pm
One crew member, from a ship quarantined at the Durban harbour, has been taken to hospital with breathing difficulties.
DURBAN - A crew member aboard a vessel that came from India and docked in Durban has been taken to hospital.
Fourteen crew members have tested positive for COVID-19 while another died of a heart attack.
The Filipino vessel was on a 17-day direct sail from India and arrived at Durban harbour on Sunday.
The entire vessel remains in quarantine.
The director of the KZN Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform, Professor Tulio de Oliveira, says samples have been collected from the crew members, which they will be testing.