A worrying new variant of the coronavirus has been detected that is being dubbed nearly 'twice' as infectious as other strains.
Known as C.1.2, the variant was first recorded in South Africa back in May and has since been seen in New Zealand, England, China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mauritius, Portugal and Switzerland.
South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases said the strain has 'mutated substantially' from the original Covid-19 virus.
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In fact, it's the most mutated form of the Wuhan coronavirus since the pandemic began.
South Africa's Institute has released a study, which said: "C.1.2 is highly mutated beyond C.1 and all other VOCs (Variants of Concern) and VOIs (Variants of Interest) globally with between 44-59 mutations away from the original Wuhan Hu-1 virus.
"We are currently assessing the impact of this variant on antibody neutralisation following SARS-CoV-2 infection or vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 in South Africa.
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"C.1.2 contains multiple substitutions and deletions within the spike protein, which have been observed in other Variants of Concern and are associated with increased transmissibility and reduced neutralisation sensitivity.
"Of greater concern is the accumulation of additional mutations which are also likely to impact neutralisation sensitivity or furin cleavage and therefore replicative fitness."
Their study is yet to be peer-reviewed.
It noted that C.1.2 is showing similar infection rate increases when Beta and Delta were getting started, however it's the number of mutations that is causing the most concern.
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Epidemiologist Eric Ding suggested it could be 'more infectious' than the original and could also 'evade vaccines'.
He wrote on Twitter: "C.1.2 also has mutation rate that is nearly **twice as fast** as the rate of other variants.
"What does that mean? It means that the C.1.2 variant has somehow mutated so fast and far that it is now the FURTHEST MUTATED variant found to date!
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"It has mutated the greatest genetic distance from the original Wuhan 1.0 strain - and implies potential troubles for 1.0 vaccines.
"Delta came from India (with very few vaccines but high infection rates) and so did C.1.2 from South Africa which also has a very low 8 per cent fully vaccinated rate, but large past waves."
At the moment, we have four main Covid-19 strains of concern, called Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta and four variants of interest, which are labeled Eta, Iota, Kappa and Lambda.
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