New Covid variant, C.1.2, may be more infectious, evade vaccine protection: Study
India TV NewsA new variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus which cause COVID-19, has been detected in South Africa and many other countries globally which could be more transmissible and evade protection provided by vaccines, according to study. Scientists from National Institute for Communicable Diseases and the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform in South Africa said the potential variant of interest, C.1.2, was first detected in the country in May this year. According to the study, C.1.2 lineage has a mutation rate of about 41.8 mutations per year, which is about twice as fast as the current global mutation rate of the other variants. "Though these mutations occur in the majority of C.1.2 viruses, there is additional variation within the spike region of this lineage, suggesting ongoing intra-lineage evolution," the authors of the study noted.