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The World Health Organization (WHO) specified that the new variant of the coronavirus, in addition to “preliminary indications that (…) it could be more contagious”, “It could also affect the effectiveness of some diagnostic methods.” But at the moment, there is “no evidence of a change in the severity of the disease.”
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British Government Scientific Adviser Patrick Vallance said that this new variant of SARS-CoV-2, in addition to spreading rapidly, was becoming the “dominant” form in the UK., which led to “a very strong rise” in hospital admissions in December.
According to Vallance, the new strain would have appeared in mid-September in London or Kent (southeast).
The idea of the Advisory Group on New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats (Nervtag) that the new strain may spread faster is based on the finding of “a very strong increase in cases of contagion and hospitalizations in London and in the south-east, with respect to the rest of England, in recent days, ”said Professor of Medicine Paul Hunter, from the University of East-Anglia, quoted on the website of the Science Media Center.
(Read also: WHO establishes close contact with the United Kingdom for new strain of covid)
Nothing indicates, at the moment, that this new strain causes a higher mortality rate or that it affects vaccines and treatments, but work is being done urgently to confirm that.
As England’s chief physician Chris Whitty said in a statement, “There is currently no indication that this new strain causes a higher mortality rate or affects vaccines and treatments, but urgent work is being done to confirm that ”.
For Professor Peter Openshaw, Immunologist at Imperial College London, cited by Science Media Center, The most worrying thing about the new strain of coronavirus is that it “appears to be 40 to 70 percent more transmissible.”
The new variant incorporates a mutation, called “N5017”, in the protein of the “spike” of the coronavirus, which allows it to latch onto human cells to penetrate them.
(Also read: How worrisome is the new covid-19 mutation in the UK?)
“Coronaviruses mutate all the time, so it is not surprising that new variants of SARS-CoV-2 emerge,” said Professor Julian Hiscox of the University of Liverpool. “The most important thing is to try to know if this variant has properties that impact human health, diagnostics and vaccines.”
AFP
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