Just as we were trying to come to grips with the Covid-19 virus and feeling cautiously optimistic that a vaccine may soon be available in SA and be the solution to the current crisis, a new ultra-infectious variant emerged.
On Friday, health minister Zweli Mkhize announced that a new variant of the virus had been discovered in SA and it was spreading fast and “making young and previously healthy people severely ill”.
This new variant of Covid-19, Mkhize said, had increasingly dominated the findings of samples collected over the past two month.
He says he believes the current second wave SA is experiencing is driven by this new variant.
When this was announced, some Covid-19 denialists said it was mere fearmongering.
One HeraldLIVE reader wrote: “Every virus mutates, that’s what happens with a virus”.
Another reader wrote: “Here we go again conspiracy theorists”.
The denialists are the problem.
They think the virus is a “mere flu”.
Granted, everyone is entitled to his or her beliefs and scepticism.
But when you ignore the very real data of more than 24,000 Covid-19 deaths, hospitals that are battling to cope and families who are losing loved ones every day, it is a serious cause for concern.
While the virus hit the elderly and those with comorbidities the hardest, the new variant is also affecting young people with no pre-existing conditions.
Prof Tulio de Oliveira, head of the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform (Krisp), which has conducted genomic sequencing on Covid-19, told our sister publication Sunday Times that “people should be very concerned as there is clear evidence that this lineage may be far more transmissible”.
“Our hospitals will get close to being overwhelmed in the next weeks or even next few days.
“Once our hospitals run out of beds, it will be very difficult to provide space in ICU and provide oxygen and ventilators.
“Then the excess deaths will be much higher this time around.”
It is unclear at this stage if the vaccine will have any effect on the variant.
We should all be afraid and take all the necessary precautions to protect ourselves and loved ones.
We must not allow ourselves to get tired — wear a mask, sanitise and practise social distancing.