New research finds that the COVID-19 variant identified in South Africa has a strong probability of reinfection and may reduce the efficacy of the current line of vaccines.

The assessment was made in a paper recently published by a team of scientists from three South African universities working with the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, according to Reuters on Wednesday.

The team tentatively concluded that the so-called 501Y-point-V2 variant shows “substantial or complete escape from neutralizing antibodies in COVID-19 convalescent plasma.”

This variant is said to be 50 percent more transmissible than existing strains. 
    
The World Health Organization(WHO) estimated late last month that this coronavirus variant has now spread to more than 20 territories.