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The new strain seemed to have appeared in mid-September in London or Kent (southeast) – AFP
The appearance in the United Kingdom of a new strain of coronavirus, much more infectious than the others, worries epidemiologists and led several countries to suspend their flights from British territory on Sunday (20).
– New strain –
British government scientific adviser Patrick Vallance said on Saturday that this new variant of SARS-CoV-2, in addition to spreading rapidly, is becoming the “dominant” form, leading to “a very strong increase” in hospitalizations. in December.
The new strain would have appeared in mid-September in London or Kent (south-east), he said.
“The Advisory Group on New and Emerging Threats to Respiratory Viruses (NERVTAG) believes that this new strain may spread more rapidly,” England’s chief physician Chris Whitty said in a statement.
This idea is based on the finding of “a very strong increase in contagion cases and hospitalizations in London and the South East, compared to the rest of England in recent days,” explains Professor of Medicine Paul Hunter, from the University of Anglia, quoted on the Science Media Center website.
“This increase appears to be caused by the new strain,” he added, referring to information provided by health authorities.
However, “there is no indication, so far, that this new strain will cause a higher death rate or affect vaccines and treatments, but work is urgently underway to confirm this,” continued Chris Whitty.
– Concerned epidemiologists –
The information “about this new strain is very concerning,” said Professor Peter Openshaw, an immunologist at Imperial College London, quoted by Science Media Center. Mainly because “it appears to be between 40% and 70% more transmissible.”
“This is very bad news,” commented Professor John Edmunds of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. “It appears that this virus is much more infectious than the previous strain.”
On his Facebook page, the French geneticist Axel Kahn recalled that, so far, “300,000 SARS-CoV-2 mutations have been sequenced in the world.”
The new strain incorporates a mutation, called “N5017”, in the coronavirus “spike” protein, which allows the virus to attach itself to human cells to penetrate them.
According to Dr Julian Tang from the University of Leicester, “This N501Y mutation had been circulating sporadically long before, this year outside the UK, in Australia in June-July, in the US in July and in Brazil in April.”
“Coronaviruses mutate all the time, so it is not surprising that new variants of SARS-CoV-2 appear,” recalled Professor Julian Hiscox, from the University of Liverpool. “The most important thing is to try to find out if this variant has properties that affect human health, diagnostics and vaccines.”
“The more viruses there are and therefore more people affected, the more random mutations there are” that are “beneficial to the virus,” added Axel Kahn.
– Suspension of flights-
Confirmation of the level of transmission of this strain led the British authorities to enact a new lockdown in London and part of England, affecting a total of 16 million inhabitants.
“Unfortunately the new strain was out of control. We must regain control, it is the only way to do it, to restrict social contacts, ”said British Health Minister Matt Hancock on Sunday.
After the Netherlands, which on Sunday suspended all its passenger flights from the United Kingdom, Belgium will also suspend air and rail connections with that country and Germany is “seriously” considering taking a similar measure, which would also affect South Africa. .
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