It appears that the index case at the Regal Airport Hotel didn't follow quarantine procedures...
They were a 36-year-old man arriving in Hong Kong from South Africa confirmed with the infection on November 15 and a 62-year-old man from Canada diagnosed on Saturday. They lived in opposite rooms on the fifth floor.
Yuen said the 36-year-old man did not wear proper surgical masks in his hotel room and sometimes even opened the door without wearing any masks, allowing the coronavirus to get into the corridor and eventually infect the elder man living opposite him.
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35 amino-acid mutations in the spike protein alone !?!
incredible 9alpha had 7, delta 6)
68 nonsynonymous changes
plus the synonymous ones, which I don't have
(I don't know, what PL below means , from a tweet od @Tuliodna )
spike:
A67V
del 69-70
T95I
G142D
del 143-145
N211I
L212V_RE
V213P
R214E
G339D
S371L
S373P
S375F
K417N
N440K
G446S
S477N
T478K
E484A
Q493R
G496S
Q498R
N501Y
Y505H
T547K
D614G
H655Y
N679K
P681H
N764K
D796Y
N856K
Q954H
N969K
L981F
E:T9I
M
3G
M:Q19E
M:A63T
N:P13L
N:del 31-33
N:R203K
N:G204R
orf1ab :
PL:K38R
PL:L862LF
PL:V1069I
PL:del 1265
PL:L1266I
PL:A1892T
nsp4:T492I
3CL:P132H
nsp6:F34FL
nsp6:F35FILV
nsp6:del 105-107
nsp6:I189V
RdRP:P323L
nsp14:I42V
nsp15:F122FILV -
WHO calls special meeting to discuss new Covid variant found in South Africa with ‘a large number of mutations’
PUBLISHED THU, NOV 25 202112:45 PM EST
UPDATED THU, NOV 25 20214:49 PM EST
Hannah Miao
KEY POINTS- WHO is monitoring a new Covid variant, scheduling a special meeting Friday to discuss what it may mean for vaccines and treatments, officials said.
- The variant, called B.1.1.529, has been detected in South Africa in small numbers.
- South African scientists have detected 30 mutations to the spike protein, the part of the virus that binds to cells in the body, which could have implications for vaccine efficacy and transmissibility.
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Today, 10:58 PM
Eric Tool
Nu (Ν,ν) will be the @WHO name/Greek letter for the new variant. Better than B.1.1.529. That's about the only good thing you can say about it right now.
https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status...75943257481216 -
Eric Tool
Nu (Ν,ν) will be the @WHO name/Greek letter for the new variant. Better than B.1.1.529. That's about the only good thing you can say about it right now.
Leave a comment:
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B.1.1.529 (=Ny?) in South Africa is out-competing others *far* faster than Beta and even Delta
https://twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/sta...56686075580421
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...nt-strain.html
spreads much faster and
vaccines >40% less effectiveLeave a comment:
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Four cases of the new COVID-19 variant recorded in Botswana
Thursday, November 25, 2021
The Presidential COVID-19 Task Force has revealed that four cases of a new COVID-19 variant now known as B.1.1.529 were reported and recorded on Monday November 22, 2021. This comes after the British media revealed that experts had discovered a new COVID-19 variant believed to have emerged in Botswana.
snip
According to a statement from the Presidential COVID-19 Task Force coordinator, Dr Kereng Masupu, the cases are said to have been detected among travellers who tested SARS-COV-2 positive on routine pre travel testing.
“The preliminary report revealed that all the four had been fully vaccinated for COVID-19. As part of the continuing investigations into the virus to establish and contain its local transmissions, contact tracing has revealed close contacts who are currently awaiting their results and the public will be informed regarding the outcome of the exercise,” further read a statement from Masupu.
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Okieman Comment: This article is about the new variant and how it is effecting a university in Gauteng Province, South Africa. The university is Tshwane University of Technology. The Tshwane region/area has seen the greatest increase in cases. I wanted to post this because it has some important information concerning the increase of cases in one week in the Tshwane region. I will put the sentence containing that information in red.
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Cluster Covid-19 outbreak at TUT a concern
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The coronavirus infection cluster outbreak at the Tshwane University of Technology has become a concern as the Tshwane region recorded a sharp increase in cases this week.
The institution recorded 55 positive cases of students including one staff member between November 16-18.
snip
Tshwane has seen a sharp increase in active Covid-19 cases in the past week. The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), said it has observed this increase in the Gauteng province, particularly in Tshwane, especially among the 10-29-year-olds over the past week.
Tshwane has recorded 1 689 active cases as of Sunday, November 21.
Last week Sunday, the number of active cases stood at 362. Contributing to these cases was a recently identified cluster in the 20-44 age group at the Tshwane University of Technology’s arts campus.
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Israel Bars Travel to and From South Africa Over New COVID Strain
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced South Africa and some neighboring countries were added to the list of 'red' countries after scientists announced the detection of the B.1.1.529 COVID-19 variantLeave a comment:
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Some African countries to be added to the UK Red List from Friday.
Africa travel restrictions over Covid variant fear
The news report listed 6 different southern African nations.Travellers arriving from several southern African countries will have to quarantine amid warnings over a new Covid variant.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid said from 12:00 GMT on Friday six countries would be added to the red list, with flights being temporarily banned.
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HK detects new mutant variant, adds six imported cases
Local | 25 Nov 2021 8:52 pm
snip
A total of 12 persons, who lived in the three rooms to the left and to the right of the two patients in the hotel during November 11 to 14, have been sent to Penny's Bay Quarantine Center to undergo compulsory quarantine for 14 days.
So far no related case was detected.
The center also reported six imported cases, including a one-year-old baby girl, two men and three women aged 17 to 45.
Apart from the baby girl, the other five patients had received two doses of Covid-19 vaccine before.
Among them, four arrived in Hong Kong on Tuesday, including a 28-year-old man from France on flight CX260, a 35-year-old woman from the Philippines on flight 5J272, a 45-year-old man from Russia on flight FV4501 and a 32-year-old woman from Nepal on flight RA409.
The baby girl and a 17-year-old girl traveled to Hong Kong on Sunday on flight EK384. The baby traveled from Bangladesh via the United Arab Emirates while the teenager traveled from Thailand.
snip
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Okieman Comment: It appears that this variant is very transmissible. And based upon the information in this article one should consider that it has already spread all over the world. The next question for me is how well it gets around the vaccine or immunity and how capable it is at causing severe health effects? This article and data about it's spread in in Gauteng Province seem to indicate some ability to get past the vaccine.Leave a comment:
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New Delhi:
India on Thursday called for rigorous screening and testing of fliers coming from South Africa, Hong Kong and Botswana where a new variant of COVID-19 has been found with multiple mutations that have led to a surge in infections.
In a letter to states and union territories, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan asked them to ensure that samples of travellers turning positive are sent to designated genome sequencing laboratories promptly. The contacts of these international travellers must also be closely tracked and tested as per Health Ministry guidelines, he said.Leave a comment:
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Source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/othe...ica/ar-AAR7yUH
New Coronavirus Variant a ‘Serious Concern’ in South Africa
Prinesha Naidoo and S'thembile Cele - 2h ago
(Bloomberg) -- Scientists in South Africa are studying a recently identified new coronavirus variant that is a cause for serious concern, stoking fears the country may face a potentially severe fourth wave that could spread internationally.
The new discovery, called B.1.1529 until a Greek letter is assigned, carries an unusually large number of mutations and is “clearly very different” from previous incarnations, Tulio de Oliveira, a bio-informatics professor who runs gene-sequencing institutions at two South African universities, said at a briefing on Thursday.
“Here is a mutation variant of serious concern,” Health Minister Joe Phaahla said at the same media event. “We were hopeful that we might have a longer break in between waves -- possibly that it would hold off to late December or even next year January.”
Virologists have detected almost 100 cases linked to the variant in the country to date, said Anne von Gottberg, clinical microbiologist & head of respiratory diseases at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases. World Health Organization officials have met to discuss the virus, which has also been detected in Botswana, according to a separate statement.
The new variant is likely to have evolved during a chronic infection of an immuno-compromised person, possibly in an untreated HIV/AIDS patient, Francois Balloux, director of the UCL Genetics Institute, said in a statement published by the Science Media Centre. The world’s biggest number of HIV cases has complicated South Africa’s efforts to fight the coronavirus pandemic, as immuno-compromised people can harbor the virus for longer, scientists say....Leave a comment:
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Prof. Christina Pagel
@chrischirp
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THREAD on the new variant B.1.1.529 summarising what is known from the excellent South African Ministry of Health meeting earlier today TLDR: So much uncertain but what *is* known is extremely worrying & (in my opinion) we should revise red list immediately. This is why: 1/16
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Prof. Christina Pagel
@chrischirp
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The South African Ministry of Health had a live streamed briefing today on the new variant detected there. https://youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2999&v=Vh4XMueP1zQ&feature=emb _logo… The variant was identified this week and has been found in three countries so far: Botswana, South Africa and Hong Kong (returning traveller). 2/16
youtube.com
WATCH LIVE | Urgent briefing on latest developments around the...
The Minister of Health Dr Joe Phaahla and Deputy Minister of Health Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo, will convene an urgent virtual media briefing on the latest develo...
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Prof. Christina Pagel
@chrischirp
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In South Africa it has been detected in Guateng province - positivity rates in Tshwane (part of Guateng) have increased massively in the last 3 weeks from less than 1% to over 30%. 3/16
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Prof. Christina Pagel
@chrischirp
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Because of this increase, COVID sequencing has been concentrated on samples from Guateng. Almost all recent samples from there (77) have been this new variant (blue dots) - taking over from a background of Delta (red) and C.1.2 (also a concerning variant, yellow). 4/16
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Prof. Christina Pagel
@chrischirp
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SA had a big Delta surge over June and July but recent rates were very very low. Most recent days have seen early surge, mainly driven by Guateng. SA has high levels of prev infection from 3 very large waves but relatively low levels of vaccination (~24% fully vaxxed). 5/16
Prof. Christina Pagel
@chrischirp
The SA science establishment & Ministry of Health transparency are doing *a global service* - we *cannot* underestimate how important their work and transparency are this week. They are urgently doing lab experiments to understand it more & continuing to track spread 11/16
10:01 AM · Nov 25, 2021·Twitter Web App
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Prof. Christina Pagel
@chrischirp
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Replying to
@chrischirp
A new UKHSA technical briefing on variants is due tomorrow - I am sure they will at least mention this variant. WHO are meeting about it today as well. People working in this field in England at the highest levels are very concerned 12/16
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Prof. Christina Pagel
@chrischirp
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Given the speed with which this variant has spread & mutations which *might* mean signifcant vaccine escape, in my opinion the UK should get ahead of this *right now*. As far as we know, it's not here yet. *Adding SA and close neighbours to the red list seems sensible* 13/16
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Prof. Christina Pagel
@chrischirp
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Because of UK status as international travel hub, v few restrictions in UK and the worrying signs from SA, we must act now or risk it being too late. Regardless of travel restrictions, supporting S African response as Barrett suggests is the right thing to do. 14/16
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Prof. Christina Pagel
@chrischirp
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If it's a false alarm, then we can step down response in a few weeks. But this is our window to act. As with Delta (and B.1.1.529 seems to spreading as or more quickly), waiting for certainty risks waiting too long. 15/16
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Prof. Christina Pagel
@chrischirp
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Finally, this is just my opinion. It's hopefully not here yet. We don't have definitive evidence on transmission advantage or immune escape but we have plenty of cause to suspect both. Let's be super protective of our vaccine programme and take precautionary action. 16/16Leave a comment:
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