Experts worldwide are urgently studying three coronavirus variants to understand what risks they pose. One variant first identified in the UK, one in South Africa, and one in Japan are probably more contagious than the original strain. They have caused cases to surge and the three nations to lock down. Here are nine key questions about the variants, answered.

Researchers race to determine why lineages identified in Britain and South Africa spread so quickly and whether they'll compromise vaccines.

KRISP believes that open and independent scientific information is represented by good journalism that determines its value to the society it serves. Read news at KRISP COVID-19 Scientific News Coverage.

Countries that conduct a lot of genetic sequencing are more likely to find new strains, say experts

A variant identified in Japan in arrivals from Brazil shares 'concerning' characteristics with mutations detected in the UK and South Africa

Researchers warn that the new variant may spread faster and could reduce the efficacy of vaccines

The coronavirus has evolved as it has made its way across the world, as any virus is expected to do. But experts have been startled by the pace at which significant new variants have emerged.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A variant of the coronavirus first detected in South Africa is unlikely to completely negate the immunising effects of vaccines, a researcher studying it told Reuters.

Mutation reduces ability of antibodies to bind to virus and could make some shots less effective.

The variant is up to 70 percent more transmissible than earlier versions, officials said. People in southeast England, including London, were told to stay at home.

Scientists are scrambling to better understand effects of a series of worrisome mutations from in the U.K. and South Africa variants.

'Si nous permettons au virus de continuer à circuler librement, nous lui donnons une grande marge de manœuvre pour mieux s'adapter à la transmission chez l'homme', déclare Tulio de Oliveira, le Brésilien à l'origine de la découverte d'une nouvelle mutation "plus transmissible" du coronavirus qui suscite des inquiétudes dans le monde entier.

President Cyril Ramaphosa expected to announce new restrictions in attempt to slow the surge

Tulio de Oliveira, o brasileiro por trás da descoberta de uma nova mutação "mais transmissível" do coronavírus que vem causando preocupação ao redor do mundo, diz à BBC News Brasil que "se o vírus continuar circulando livremente, o risco dele se adaptar melhor aumenta".

Research still to confirm threat posed but variant does not appear to provoke more serious symptoms

In June, Ravindra Gupta, a virologist at the University of Cambridge, heard about a cancer patient who had come into a local hospital the month before with COVID-19 and was still shedding virus. The patient was being treated for a lymphoma that had relapsed and had been given rituximab, a drug that depletes antibody-producing B cells. That made it hard for him to shake the infection with SARS-CoV-2.

The new variant of SARS-CoV-2 detected in SA has left scientists working round the clock to unravel its mysteries, the health department said on December 19 2020. The department of health issued a lengthy list of questions and answers on Saturday after announcing that the virus that causes Covid-19 has evolved into a new variant.

Durban, 3 December 2020. The KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform (KRISP), University of KwaZulu-Natal has produced over 1000 HIV-1 genomes in record time in South Africa, a significant scientific endeavor to understand how drug resistance has developed to a new and potent antiretroviral (ARV) treatment.

Prof Carl Heneghan & Tom Jefferson write at the Spectator about nosocomial infection in the U.K. In this article they mention our genomics and outbreak response (Lessells, Moosa & de Oliveira 2020) work on a large hospital outbreak in South Africa.

The KZN Covid-19 Research Consortium invites researchers, scientists, and clinicians to submit an abstract for its upcoming virtual conference. Abstracts should relate to KZN-specific Covid-19 research findings and/or experiences and practice. An example of experience/practice may include experiences of working in hospital or clinic settings; or what the challenges were in clinical research conduct.

Published in a recent medRxiv* paper, researchers from South Africa, the United Kingdom, and Brazil found that these mutations in SARS-CoV-2 lineages are localized to South Africa. These unique strains, not found elsewhere in the world, are thought to have contributed around 42% to the country's total infection rate.

Proposals will be reviewed by a selection committee composed of KRISP, UKZN, eThekwini, Stanford and SPARK Global faculty and commercial and industry experts. Based on the compiled rankings, finalists will be invited to present an oral pitch to the review panel in early December, 2020. Approximately 3-5 proposals selected for awards (number dependent on available funding) will be notified before the end of December, 2020.

WHAT: Weekly interaction with members of the media to share critical updates on steps taken to implement key aspects of the joint continental strategy for COVID-19 response; and to also highlight the coordinated efforts by African Union Member States to combat the pandemic in their respective countries.

The Africa Union and Africa CDC, in partnership with KRISP, H3AbioNet, ACEGID and SANBI present a webinar series to capacitate African researchers on the generation and analysis of SARS-CoV-2 genomic data. Webinar: Main Routes of Entry and Genomic Diversity of SARS-CoV-2 in Uganda .

The use of genomics to support the response to COVID-19 and containment of the virus in Africa is currently low. To address this suboptimal use of genomics, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Institute of Pathogen Genomics, in consultation with the Africa CDC led African Task Force for Coronavirus Preparedness and Response (AFTCOR) laboratory technical working group.

Ahead of the emergence of the SARS-CoV -2 outbreak in South Africa KRISP started preparing for it. KRISP really rose to the occasion in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic in Africa. In the process, KRISP trained 1000s of health care workers, produced genomic protocols & capacitated dozens of laboratories in Africa to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic

The Africa Union and Africa CDC, in partnership with KRISP, H3AbioNet, ACEGID and SANBI present a webinar series to capacitate African researchers on the generation and analysis of SARS-CoV-2 genomic data. Webinar: SARS-CoV-2 whole genome sequencing and quality control .

The Africa Union and Africa CDC, in partnership with KRISP, H3AbioNet, ACEGID and SANBI present a webinar series to capacitate African researchers on the generation and analysis of SARS-CoV-2 genomic data. Webinar: Public Health Alliance for Genomic Epidemiology (PHA4GE): Strengthening Bioinformatics in Public Health .

South Africa witnessed some 17000 extra deaths from natural causes or 59% more than would normally be expected between early May and mid-July, scientists said, suggesting many more people are dying of Covid-19 than shown in official figures.

There have been 17090 more deaths in the country than there were in previous years during the same period. But the official number of Covid-19 deaths is about 6000. There is a significant departure from the historical trends, even under these abnormal circumstances.