COVID-19: SA health officials to continue monitoring variant Mu

South African health officials will continue to monitor another new coronavirus variant, called Mu.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has recently classified the Pango lineage B.1.621 as a variant of interest and assigned it the Greek name “Mu”.

This variant was first detected in Colombia in January this year and has since spread across North America, South America and Europe, with detections in Asia.

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD)’s Dr Jinal Bhiman said the Mu variant had not yet been picked up in South Africa.

“We know that it is, like the Beta variant, much more resistant to immune responses. We suspect that this, we don’t really know at this point, but we suspect that it has a higher level of transmissibility, again for example the Beta and the Alpha. What we don’t know is how it fares against the Delta variant.”

-EWN

In other news – Thembinkosi Lorch unfollows sweetheart Natasha Thahane (Photos)

Orlando Pirates player Thembinkosi Lorch posted a cryptic message on his Instagram story earlier today (3 September) and unfollowed his girlfriend actress Natasha Thahane.

Thembinkosi Lorch and Natasha Thahane seem to be indicating that there is trouble in paradise.. again. The Orlando Pirates player posted a cryptic message on his Instagram story about honesty. Learn More