Pretoria – South African health officials have reported the first cases of infection in the country with a variant of the novel coronavirus initially identified in India, S. African health minister has announced.
Zweli Mkhize referred to "four cases" of variant B.1.617.2 as having been detected in two provinces of the country - two in Gauteng and two in KwaZulu-Natal, in people coming from India.
The South African official also announced another variant of the novel coronavirus, B.117, detected for the first time in the United Kingdom, as having also been identified in the country with 11 confirmed cases.
"We reiterate that there is no reason to panic, as the response measures in terms of public health - testing, identification of contacts, isolation and quarantine, have not changed," said the South African Minister of Health.
The National Institute of Communicable Diseases of South Africa (NICD), said that all identified cases are isolated according to the covid-19 containment rules in force in the country.
With 10,887,709 covid-19 tests performed, the country has infection tally of 1,596,595 cases with the novel coronavirus and 54,735 deaths associated with covid-19 disease, according to South African health officials.
The country has recorded 1,778 fresh cases in the last 24 hours. So far, the number of recoveries stands at 1,516,256, representing 95 percent, the government has said.
