Don't panic about new SARS-CoV-2 variant, experts say
In the leafy Johannesburg suburb of Sandringham, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) bears a deceptive façade. Do not be fooled by its sleepy campus, clustered face brick buildings and shade cloth parking; this government facility is home to state-of-the-art biosafety laboratories and some of South Africa's top virologists, microbiologists and epidemiologists. Here, 71 scientists are tasked daily with laboratory-based disease surveillance to protect the country from pathogen outbreak events.
On March 5 2020, then health minister Zweli Mkhize announced South Africa's first Covid‑19 infection at an NICD press briefing. At the time, the NICD was an obscure acronym for many, but that quickly changed as the institution became central to the country's pandemic response.
While the Covid-19 pandemic may have waned, the NICD hasn't stopped monitoring. That is because there remains a global public health risk associated with Covid-19.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) states: 'There has been evidence of decreasing impact on human health throughout 2023 and 2024 compared with 2020-2023, driven mainly by:
high levels of population immunity, achieved through infection, vaccination or both;
similar virulence of currently circulating JN.1 sublineages of the SARS-CoV-2 virus compared with previously circulating Omicron sublineages; and
the availability of diagnostic tests and improved clinical case management.
SARS-CoV-2 circulation nevertheless continues at considerable levels in many areas, as indicated in regional trends, without any established seasonality and with unpredictable evolutionary patterns.'
Thus, while SARS-CoV-2 is still circulating, it is clearly not making remotely as many people ill or claiming nearly as many lives as it did four years ago.
Asked about this, Foster Mohale, spokesperson for the national health department, said 'there are no reports of people getting severely sick and dying due to Covid-19 in South Africa now'.
Variant under monitoring
As SARS-CoV-2 circulates, it continues to mutate.
The WHO recently designated variant NB.1.8.1 as a new variant under monitoring. There is however no reason for alarm.
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