Concerns over South African travel and possibilities of having the country on hard lockdown have risen on social media after new coronavirus variants were detected in the country.
Acting Executive Director for the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), Professor Adrian Puren however said that all COVID-19 restrictions must be balanced with the need to grow the economy.
Coronavirus variants most dominant in India and the United Kingdom have recently been detected in South Africa. SABC reported that the Department of Health says ‘The Network for Genomic Surveillance in South Africa (NGS-SA) confirmed today that 2 variants of concern. other than the B.1.351 already dominating in South Africa, have been detected. These are B.1.1.7 (first detected in the UK) – 11 cases and B.1.617.2 (first detected in India) – 4 cases.’
The Indian coronavirus variant has been detected in Gauteng (2) and KwaZulu-Natal (2). All of these reported cases are being managed according to the COVID-19 case management guidelines and contact tracing has been done in order to help slow the spread of the variants.
The variant first detected in the United Kingdom, the Department mentioned that of the eleven cases, eight were detected in the Western Cape, one in KZN, and two in Gauteng.
Puren is anticipating the detection of new variants in various geographic areas that could limit South African domestic travel once again in the coming months.
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