Scientists have said a new COVID variant that carries an “extremely high number” of mutations may drive further waves of disease by evading the body’s defences.Only 10 cases in three countries have been confirmed by genomic sequencing, but the variant has sparked serious concern among some researchers because a number of the mutations may help the virus evade immunity.The B.1.1.529 variant has 32 mutations in the spike protein, the part of the virus that most vaccines use to prime the immune

The World Trade Organization (WTO) said Friday its member nations had again failed to agree to suspend intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines, with some countries doubting a deal could be reached unless certain delegations make "real compromises".South Africa and India have called for intellectual property rights to be temporarily lifted for coronavirus vaccines during the pandemic in order to boost production and address the gaping inequality in access between rich and

A new COVID variant detected in South Africa has made headlines around the world.On Monday the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in South Africa issued an alert about the “C.1.2 lineage”, saying it had been detected in all provinces in the country, but at a relatively low rate.C.1.2 was first detected in May, the alert said, but Delta is still the dominant variant spreading in South Africa and the world.A pre-print, non-peer-reviewed paper published about the variant said C.1.2 “ha

The first “tweaked” vaccine against the worrying coronavirus variants that emerged in South Africa and Brazil has successfully neutralised them in laboratory trials, the United States (US) company Moderna has said.The results of the small trial suggest that boosters against the variants will be feasible and could be rolled out this year to counter the threat from variants that have appeared around the world and are feared in some cases to be more transmissible or partially vaccine-resistant.L

Fast-spreading coronavirus variants have ignited global concern over whether existing vaccines will be able to protect the world from a virus that is constantly mutating.Variants that have emerged in Britain, South Africa, Brazil and now India have all been the focus of fears of implications for the COVID-19 pandemic. Here's what we know.How Many Variants?Viruses continually mutate as tiny errors are introduced each time they replicate and cause new variants to appear.

This November will mark the 20th anniversary of the BRIC acronym that I coined to capture the economic potential of Brazil, Russia, India, and China.

The COVID-19 crisis has brought economies around the world to a standstill. Huge swaths of manufacturing have been idled, and sectors such as aviation and tourism are largely shuttered. Amid all the economic ruin, some have pointed to a supposed silver lining: cleaner air.