By Sue-Ann Wayow
A NEW variant of the coronavirus NeoCoV has been detected in bats from South Africa but is not yet being transmitted by humans.
Epidemiologist Dr Avery Hinds on Saturday said the virus has been detected in the animal population only but is being closely monitored by various organisations.
Dr Hinds was asked about the newest variant being reported internationally at the Ministry of Health’s virtual media conference which may be threatening to the human population.
Referring to foreign articles, he said the disease was a zoonotic disease meaning it was currently a threat to the animal population.
“In this case, it is a virus that is detected in a bat population and it is a member of the Coronavirus family,” he said.
Dr Hinds said that coronaviruses in particular were under surveillance by the World Health Organization, the World Organization of Animal Health, the Food and Agriculture Organization and others.
He stated, “All these organisations together monitor the effect of circulating viruses on animal populations because we do know that a lot of the new and emerging diseases that affect the human population start off in these animal populations. At this point it is of interest to the animal health specialist, it is being observed it is not being transmitted to human beings at this point in time.”
A report by Russian news agency Sputnik – published by several media outlets states that Wuhan scientists are saying that NeoCov is related to the Middle East respiratory syndrome or MERS-coronavirus. It stated, “Just one mutation is enough for the virus to be able to infiltrate human cells.”
According to Chinese researchers, NeoCoV carries the potential combination of MERS-high CoV’s mortality rate (one in every three infected persons dies) and the current SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus’s high transmission rate.
