A variant of the SARS-COV-2 Virus- currently termed 501.V2 Variant, has been identified by our genomics scientists here in South Africa. This genomics team, led by the Kwazulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform, or KRISP, has sequenced hundreds of samples from across the country since the beginning of the pandemic in March. They noticed that a particular variant has increasingly dominated the findings of the samples collected in the past two months.

Diphtheria Situational Report (Week 16 Of 2025)
Between 1 January 2024 and 20 April 2025, 46 confirmed cases of respiratory diphtheria,