THE South African variant of Covid-19 has been identified in Southampton, it has been revealed.
A case of the variant has been found in the SO15 5 area of Southampton.
Health bosses said it cannot be traced back to international travel.
The case identified has self-isolated and full contact tracing has taken place.
It comes as a case of the variant was identified in Bramley, near Basingstoke, over the weekend.
Hmmm, much too close for comfort to me.
If it cannot be traced back to international travel how the heck is it getting here that's worrying 🤷♀️
It would not surprise me if it was a home grown mutation, a similar one has already surfaced, the Bristol variant. After all it is just a genetic sequence if it has the same sequence then that is as far as it goes, the virus does not exactly have a passport to show any origin.
Sadly it could have come from anywhere. There are so many variants similar to the SA one emerging that I think very shortly the UK will produce its own. With such high levels of community spread variants are inevitable.
6 variants here now including the original. Click on the image to expand it.
Make that 7 variants add the Nigerian variant to that list, another with the E484K mutation.
The UK has produced 2 of it's own so far - Kent, Bristol and recently a variant of the Bristol one?
Probably more than that have remained undetected yet. If the lockdown gets relaxed I fear we will be in big trouble as those variants all have the ability to evade the vaccines currently in use.
Could not agree more. The higher the levels of community spread the greater the chance of a variant. If you look a the "Kent" variant it became noticed in September which means it must have mutated in the late summer months whilst levels of infection were low. Given that we are no where near those levels even now I feel a new UK variants is a given.
Too true! Wondering how effective the vaccines we've taken will be able to cope😱
I heard on the news last night that it has also been found in IP22 Diss & Roydon on the Norfolk/Suffolk border which as I live about 20 miles away it is to close for comfort for me. I just wonder if it's another home grown variant that just happens to be the same as the one first found in South Africa. Who knows.
