Health teams are monitoring Covid's ‘Nimbus' variant
South Africa is closely monitoring the emergence of a new Covid-19 variant, known as Nimbus or NB.1.8.1, the national health department says.
This comes after the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said NB.1.8.1 has an Omicron-descendent lineage and was first detected in January in Asia, and was designated a variant under monitoring by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on May 23.
The NB.1.8.1 variant is increasing in prevalence globally, from 2.5% of sequences submitted to the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data between March 31 to April 6 to 10.7% in epidemiological week April 21 to 27.
By May 18, it had been detected in 22 countries, and has been associated with an increase in SARS-CoV-2 infections in parts of Asia, the NICD said.
Covid vaccines are expected to provide protection against severe illness due to NB.1.8.1 infections and the WHO considers the public health risk of NB.1.8.1 to be low.
As of June 10, the NB.1.8.1 variant has not been detected in SA, the NICD said, with the caveat that SARS-CoV-2 testing throughout the country is limited and few specimens are being submitted for sequencing. However, data from the NICD's respiratory illness syndromic surveillance programmes, which operate in selected public and private hospitals and outpatient facilities, show the number of SARS-CoV-2 infections is low.
The country is seeing an increase in influenza cases due to the winter season. The NICD advised those who are unwell with respiratory symptoms to practice regular hand washing, cover coughs and sneezes and avoid contact with people who may be at high risk of severe respiratory illness.
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