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Britain has announced that it is drastically tightening measures against the spread of the new strain of coronavirus, writes the British “Guardian”. Island scientists are concerned about its infectivity: According to initial data, it is up to 70% more contagious than all other known varieties of COVID-19.
One of the main concerns is whether the vaccines currently allowed against the disease will be effective against the new variety.
Viruses constantly mutate: dozens of mutations for SARS-CoV-2 have been found around the world so far, the most common in Europe being the so-called. The Spanish strain, which until recently was the most contagious.
UK health authorities are racing for time to find out whether the VUI-202012/01 variant is more dangerous than previous strains and whether it causes more severe cases of COVID-19 in patients. At the same time, there is the possibility that this option will spread faster than the previous ones, mainly due to non-compliance with anti-epidemic measures.
The British government has already sent information to the World Health Organization with the available data. WHO labs already have the new strain of the virus and have yet to test it to see if it responds to antibodies and vaccines to date.
UK authorities are preparing regional maps of where the most contagious new strain is spreading, but they will be ready in at least two weeks, enough time to spread.
The appearance of the new strain is worrying, but this does not mean that at any price it is more dangerous than the previous ones. So far, several more serious mutations have been found in COVID-19: a month ago, the Danish government killed millions of minks due to an open strain of coronavirus in them. In October, it became clear that the “Spanish strain”, which first appeared in Spanish farmers in the summer, spread mainly in Europe. No strain is more lethal or more resistant to the vaccine.
The two most important questions right now are: Does the new strain cause more serious disease and will it be affected by the new vaccines?
“If the new variant was causing more serious disease, we would have understood that by now,” said Ewan Birney, deputy director of the European Laboratory for Molecular Biology.
“If that were the case, the percentage of seriously ill people would increase in hospitals. Or slightly decrease if it is less contagious. None of these happened,” he said.
Regarding vaccines, Birney said they have been tested on many strains of the new coronavirus and should be effective for the new strain as well.
It is not yet clear where and when exactly the new strain of coronavirus appeared.
