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 32 of 2026)
Between 29 December 2025 and 14 June 2026, 30 confirmed cases of respiratory diphtheria

