South Africa hit by more than ONE MILLION Covid cases as super-infectious mutant strain fuels massive second wave
SOUTH Africa has been hit by more than ONE MILLION Covid cases as a super-infectious mutant strain fuels a devastating second wave.
In a statement on Sunday, South Africa's Health Ministry said: “Today, we have breached one million cumulative cases of COVID-19 in South Africa, with a cumulative total of 1,004,413 cases reported."
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South Africa's Coronavirus Command Council met today to decide whether further measures would be needed to stop the spread of the bug, according to local media News24.
It is still very early but at this stage, the preliminary data suggests the virus that is now dominating in the second wave is spreading faster than the first wave.
Professor Salim Abdool Karim
It comes as a new mutant strain of coronavirus, referred to as 501.V2, rips through South Africa, after a network of scientists in the country tracking the genetics of the bug discovered it.
The new variant is understood to be making up about 80 to 90 per cent of new cases in Africa’s most industrialised nation and is believed to be highly infectious.
Professor Salim Abdool Karim, chairman of the government's Ministerial Advisory Committee, said in a briefing this week: “It is still very early but at this stage, the preliminary data suggests the virus that is now dominating in the second wave is spreading faster than the first wave.”
And South Africa may see “many more cases” in the new wave than it experienced in the first surge of the disease, according to Professor Karim.
Mutations of Covid-19 are not unusual - the virus that was first detected in Wuhan, China, is not the same one now found in most parts of the world.