Covid variants from other countries would have eventually arrived in SA: Prof
Scientists say it was inevitable that Covid-19 variants first detected in other countries would eventually make their way to South Africa.
Over the weekend, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize confirmed the strains first detected in India and the UK had been found in a total of 15 people in South Africa.
"The issue really is not to focus because on fear of the variant but to shift the attention from that to accept that this variants will occur whether you like it or not.
"And they will spread across the world and you can't really protect yourself by blocking flights from India because it can spread to other countries.
"Are you going to block flights from all those other countries as well?" questions Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Research and Innovation at UKZN, Professor Mosa Moshabela.
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Four cases were positive for the variant first detected in India. Two of these are in KZN and the other two in Gauteng.
The UK strain was discovered in 11 people who've contracted the virus, most of them in the Western Cape. One of the cases is in KZN.
Moshabela, says government needs to closely monitor the variants.
He says we shouldn't be worried about which strain is worse.
"We are assuming that the situation, for example, in India or in Brazil, is driven purely by the variant and that's not necessarily true. These situations that we are seeing are driven by many other factors including the proximity of people together, how dense they are.
"Strengthen our border entries to make sure we do proper surveillance and we can detect them. Detecting them should not cause us to fear it should give us relief because at least we know that they are here."
