Coronavirus: What you need to know about ‘troubling’ C. 1.2 variant that has scientists worried

As the Delta variant causes havoc around the world, another is worrying scientists due to its “high mutation rate”. Here’s what you need to know.

A new Covid-19 variant has emerged that is causing anxiety around the world – one potentially even more threatening than Delta.

WHAT IS IT CALLED?

The variant is known as C.1.2.

WHERE WAS IT FIRST FOUND?

Scientists in South Africa from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases made the discovery of the new variant that has an unusually high mutation rate.

It has been appearing more in recent months, throughout South Africa, and in China, Mauritius, the UK, and was picked up at the border in New Zealand.

HOW WIDESPREAD IS IT?

It was only “present at very low levels” and that it was too early to predict how it might evolve, the NICD said this week.

It first appeared in May, but has come to public attention now through a preprint study that is yet to be per-reviewed.

HOW BAD IS IT?

Despite being at a relatively low rate – the majority of cases in South Africa are still Delta – it has caused alarm because its mutation is almost twice as fast as observed in other global variants.

Its frequency has been detected in less than three per cent of genomes sequenced since it was first picked up – although this has increased from 0.2 to two per cent last month.

Test are under way to try and find out more about the new strain of Covid-19.

CAN IT BEAT THE VACCINES?

“At this stage we do not have experimental data to confirm how it reacts in terms of sensitivity to antibodies,” NICD researcher Penny Moore told a media conference this week.

“We have considerable confidence that the vaccines that are being rolled out in South Africa will continue to protect us against severe illness and death,” she said.

It’s possible it will be less effective, but we won’t know until more tests are done.

The NICD said they were being “cautious”.

“We suspect that it might be able to partially evade the immune response, but despite this, that vaccines will still offer high levels of protection against hospitalisation and death,” it said.

IS IT SERIOUS ENOUGH TO BE A ‘VARIANT OF INTEREST’?

The variant is not frequent enough to qualify as a “variant of interest” or a “variant of concern” by the WHO – yet. Further tests on the impact of the mutations on infectiousness and vaccine resistance have not been completed.

WHY HAS THERE BEEN AN ALERT ISSUED FOR THIS VARIANT THEN?

The mutations contained within C. 1.2 is what is worrying scientists – the variants that have gone on to be problematic, like Delta, have similar mutations.

WHAT DO THE EXPERTS SAY?

Harvard epidemiologist Dr Eric Liang Feigl-Ding told Nine’s The Today Show the variant had “lots of troubling mutations and it’s the most mutative of all variants”.

“It’s the most genetically distant from the Wuhan 1.0 virus. Whether or not that is the next big thing, it’s not necessarily that, it’s the fact that the virus is mutating so much faster than we expected.

“In means future variants – Wuhan 1.0 vaccines need to be updated much faster.

“Unless you’re triple vaxxed you’re not considered fully vaxxed.”

WILL THIS VARIANT JUST DIE OUT AND NOT SPREAD LIKE THE OTHERS?

It could well do that. Variants emerge all the time, and some just die out without causing problems.

Originally published as Coronavirus: What you need to know about ‘troubling’ C. 1.2 variant that has scientists worried