Scientists in South Africa have detected yet another new highly mutated COVID-19 strain, dubbed C.1.2. The C.1.2 variant, a descendant of the C.1 variant, was first detected in May 2021.

Scientists in South Africa have detected yet another new COVID-19 strain, dubbed C.1.2.

The study, conducted by the country’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases and the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform, is currently awaiting peer review as of press time.

The C.1.2 variant, a descendant of the C.1 variant, was first detected in May 2021.


Compared to C.1 and other Variants of Interest/Concern (VOI/VOC), the C.1.2 variant is highly mutated. According to researchers, it’s actually a lot closer to the Lambda variant.

The new variant was also detected in both England and China, as well as the majority of South African provinces, including the Eastern Cape and Western Cape. Worryingly, the variant has also made its way to New Zealand, Mauritius, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Portugal, and Switzerland.

According to the report, of all Highly Mutated COVID C.1.2 variant samples – 63 matching sequences in total – more than 50 percent had 14 mutations occurring in the spike regions, which contain spike proteins that allow the SARS-CoV-2 virus (which causes COVID-19) to penetrate host cells and cause infection.

IMAGE: The Associated Press / Financial Express
However, the study suggests that evolution of the C.1.2 variant is still ongoing, since mutations have been detected in some other sequences as well. This means it hasn’t reached its ‘final’ form yet.

The C.1.2 lineage also has a mutation rate of 41.8 mutations per year. When compared to other existing variants, the mutation rate of C.1.2 is twice as fast. The more cases involving C.1.2 there are, the faster it mutates.

The scientists pointed out that the variant shows the same evolutionary characteristics of the Alpha, Beta, and Gamma VOCs, citing a short evolution period.

For now, we’ll have to wait for the study to get peer-reviewed before coming to any solid conclusions.

Source Mashable

By Arsalan Ahmad

Arsalan Ahmad is a Research Engineer working on 2-D Materials, graduated from the Institute of Advanced Materials, Bahaudin Zakariya University Multan, Pakistan.LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arsalanahmad-materialsresearchengr/