Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize has been placed on special leave. Picture: GCIS
Higher Education, Science and Innovation Minister Blade Nzimande and Health Minister Zweli Mkhize will today announce the latest information on the locally dominant Covid-19 variant.
UPDATE: Infection by 501Y.V2 variant gives immunity to other Covid-19 variants
Late last year the government and local scientists from the KwaZulu-Natal Research Informatics and Sequencing Programme detected a new Covid-19 variant, called 501.Y.V2.
The new variant has a number of mutations to its spike protein, increasing the efficacy of the virus to infect humans and possibly reducing the effectiveness of vaccines.
The briefing will outline the increased transmission of the virus and whether reinfection can occur.
Watch the briefing below, courtesy of the SABC.
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