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英国卫生大臣汉考克称，已从最近从南非入境人士的接触者中发现两个感染 501.V2 毒株的病例。他表示，这种变种的传染性更强，而且突变更多。
全文共 563 个词， By Clive Cookson,David Pilling,Joseph Cotterill
A new coronavirus variant first detected in South Africa has been identified in the UK, as scientists warned of the risks posed by the growing number of Covid-19 mutations.
英国确认了在南非首次发现的一种新冠病毒变种。科学家们就新冠病毒越来越多突变所带来的风险发出警告。
Two cases of the 501.V2 strain, which has caused a recent surge of Covid-19 infections in South Africa, have been identified in contacts of people who had arrived from the country in the past fortnight, Matt Hancock, UK health secretary, said on Wednesday.
英国卫生大臣马特·汉考克（Matt Hancock）周三表示，已从过去两周从南非入境人士的接触者中发现两个感染 501.V2 毒株的病例。这种毒株已导致南非新型冠状病毒肺炎（COVID-19，即 2019 冠状病毒病）感染人数激增。
“This virus is yet more transmissible and appears to have mutated further than the new [strain detected in the UK]”, Mr Hancock said, adding that the travellers and their close contacts must quarantine immediately.
汉考克表示：“这种病毒变种的传染性更强，而且相比在英国发现的新毒株似乎有进一步的突变。”他补充说，这些旅行者及其密切接触者必须立即隔离。
The variant first detected in South Africa emerged independently from its counterpart in the UK, B.1.1.7, which has driven a rapid increase in Covid-19 cases across London and south-east England.
首先在南非发现的新冠病毒变种与在英国发现的新冠病毒变种B.1.1.7 相互独立，后者已导致伦敦和英格兰东南部地区COVID-19 病例迅速增加。
Genetic analysis shows that the variants detected in the UK and South Africa both have more than 20 mutations — an unusually large number of changes to the virus. Some of the mutations differ between the two strains, though some of the changes are the same.
基因分析显示，在英国和南非发现的变种都有 20 多个突变——数量多得异常。两个毒株之间的有些突变不同，但有些是相同的。
Both variants include changes to the spike protein, which the coronavirus uses to gain entry to human cells.Scientists in South Africa have said it is “very plausible” that this N501 spike mutation may make it more infectious — perhaps because it produces a higher “viral load” in the upper respiratory tract. But they have cautioned that more study is needed.
这两个变种都包括刺突蛋白的变化，新冠病毒利用这种蛋白进入人体细胞。南非科学家表示，N501 刺突蛋白突变“非常可信地”使其传染性更强——也许是因为它在上呼吸道产生更高的“病毒载量”。但他们告诫称，还需要进行更多研究。
“The preliminary data suggests that the virus that is now dominating in the second wave is spreading faster than the first wave,” said Salim Abdool Karim, the South African government’s leading Covid-19 adviser. “It is not clear if the second wave has more or less deaths, in other words, the severity is still very unclear.”
“初步数据似乎表明，与第一波疫情中的病毒相比，在第二波疫情中占主导地位病毒的蔓延速度更快，”南非政府首席COVID-19 顾问萨利姆·阿卜杜勒·卡里姆（Salim Abdool Karim）表示，“尚不清楚第二波疫情造成的死亡人数是多是少，换句话说，其严重程度仍然很不明朗。”
Scientists in South Africa, like their UK counterparts, are looking for evidence to show whether the new variant is likely to cause different symptoms and whether it would be harder to detect, treat or vaccinate against.
与英国同行一样，南非科学家也在寻找证据，以证明该新变种是否会导致不同的症状，以及它是否会更难发现、治疗，或降低疫苗功效。
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention held an emergency meeting on Monday to discuss the 501.V2 variant, which emerged in Nelson Mandela Bay in Eastern Cape, in the south of the country. It concluded that there was no immediate need to restrict trade or travel across the continent, largely because the majority of African countries already require a negative Covid-19 test before entry.
非洲疾病控制和预防中心（Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention）周一召开紧急会议，讨论在南非南部东开普省的纳尔逊·曼德拉湾（Nelson Mandela Bay）出现的 501.V2 变种。报告的结论是，目前没有必要立即限制非洲大陆的贸易或旅行，这在很大程度上是因为大多数非洲国家已要求入境之前的COVID-19 检测呈阴性。
The emergence of the new variant has coincided with what the Africa CDC called a second wave of Covid-19 in Africa, in which the number of infections and deaths has risen in some countries. It urged countries to step up testing and tracing as well as genomic sequencing to pick up the prevalence of the new strain or strains.
新变种出现之际，非洲疾控中心称，非洲的第二波COVID-19 疫情正在蔓延，一些国家的感染和死亡病例有所上升。该中心敦促各国加强检测和追踪，以及基因组测序，以发现一个或多个新毒株占上风的情况。
Like the UK — but unlike most other countries — South Africa makes an effort to track mutations of the virus through extensive genomic sequencing. British and South African scientists have suggested that this surveillance might be one reason why they have detected significant new strains that have not yet been documented in other countries.
与英国一样——但与其他大多数国家不同——南非努力通过广泛的基因组测序来追踪病毒的突变。英国和南非科学家提出，这种监测可能是他们发现其他国家尚未报告的重要新毒株的原因之一。
“We are entering a particularly dangerous phase of this pandemic,” said Dr Andrew Preston, a microbiologist at the University of Bath. The evolution of two new variants at about the same time with an unusual large number of mutations makes “the effective rollout of the vaccines even more time-critical,” he said.
巴斯大学（University of Bath）微生物学家安德鲁·普雷斯顿（Andrew Preston）博士表示：“我们正进入这场大流行的一个特别危险的阶段。”他说，两个新变种几乎同时出现大量不寻常的突变，使得“疫苗接种工作的有效展开更加紧迫”。