fake news
UNSPLASH

The Department of Health dismissed a misleading message on social media regarding a new variant of COVID-19 attributed to the Ministry of Health.

The fake message alleged the detection of a new COVID-19 variant and called on everyone to wear masks for prevention.

"The department would like to dismiss this as fake news by faceless sources whose sole intention is to create unnecessary panic," department spokesperson Foster Mohale said in a statement.

"The fact of the matter is, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a notification in October this year (2022) on the Omicron sublineages BQ.1 and XBB detected around the world as part of ongoing work to track variants by Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution (TAG-VE)," the statement added.

Currently, there is no evidence that these sub-lineages will be substantially more dangerous than other Omicron sublineages. The department is working with the NICD and other scientists to keep an eye on all Covid-19 lineages and is asking South Africans to stay careful as they enjoy the festive season, said the statement.

The known variants of Covid-19 are still in circulation, and the country is not out of the woods yet when it comes to the pandemic, therefore, the ministry is urging citizens to get vaccinated and to take booster shots to enhance their immunity.

Earlier this month, scientists in South Africa warned that a new, more vicious strain of Coronavirus could be on its way. This news has caused some unrest among the population, but health experts have urged everyone to remain calm

This was a follow-up to a report by researchers at the Africa Institute of Health Research in Durban, in which they had warned that the coronavirus is still able to mutate even during periods of low activity, and may become more virulent in the future, reported Bloomberg.

After studying the case of a person with AIDS who was infected with the "Omicron" mutant from a coronavirus infection, scientists issued a warning that the virus could remain in the patient's body for many months and potentially mutate into a more dangerous form.

The study, conducted by the same laboratory that first tested the omicron strain against vaccines last year, used samples from a person infected with HIV. Over the six months, the virus initially caused the same level of cell fusion and death as the omicron BA.1 strain, but as it evolved those levels rose to become similar to the first version of Covid-19 identified in Wuhan in China.