These letters of the Greek alphabets will, the WHO hopes, avoid stigma and discrimination against the countries where these strains were originally detected.
Ban travel to and from India now Sowetan > By Sowetan - 06 May 2021 - 09:06
We need more stringent border controls implemented immediately to save South Africans from the new Covid-19 variant.
Health minister Zweli Mkhize said on Tuesday evening there were no confirmed cases of the B.1.617 Covid-19 variant but they were conducting further tests on positive samples of a number of people, including three who had flown in from India. He said the distress over the new variants had created “exclusive and sometimes even racist rhetoric”.
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Madeleine van Wyk, left, was the first person to die of Covid-19 in SA. Image: Supplied
Under normal circumstances, the national government would not have publicly announced the death of a 48-year-old Cape Town woman.
But within hours of taking her last breath on March 27 last year, almost every South African knew Madeleine van Wyk s name, and a photograph of her, with the wind in her hair and a huge smile, made its way onto social media.
Van Wyk, a financial manager, was the first South African to die from Covid-19, bringing home the reality of the pandemic which struck SA a year ago this week when the country s first coronavirus infection was confirmed.
501Y.V2 immunity
A preliminary study conducted by KRISP showed people previously infected with the new variant are immune from reinfection and possibly other circulating variants.
The study involved a small number of people and is yet to be submitted for evaluation by the scientific community.
Scientists said the plasma collected from people infected with the variant had “good neutralising activity”, including against “first wave” viruses and potentially other variants of concern.
It shows that the immune response to the new variant is as potent was that seen in people infected with the old variant. NICD (@nicd sa) March 3, 2021
Immunity does not mean no vaccination