According to Public Health Directors the new variant hasn’t been found in Nottinghamshire at this stage.
At a media briefing today ( Friday 5 February ) Jonathan Gribbin, Director of Public Health for Nottinghamshire said that the South African variant of coronavirus has not been identified yet.
He added that Public Health England note that 100 cases have been identified in England with around 40 more suspected.
Most cases of the variant are linked to travel, but some may be community cases. It is likely there may be more that haven’t been found.
There is no evidence that the South Africa variant causes more serious illness for the vast majority of people who become infected.
As with the original version, the risk is highest for people who are elderly or have significant underlying health conditions.
But there are concerns it can spread more readily and vaccines may not work quite as well against it.
Some changes are in the virus’s spike protein – the part of it that allows the virus entry into human cells. It is also the element that vaccines are designed to combat, this is why experts are concerned about these particular mutations.
