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About 70 percent of coronavirus patients screened at a Tokyo hospital last month were identified with the E484K mutation, which is known to reduce the protection of the vaccine, according to Japanese public service broadcaster NHK on Sunday, Reuters said.
The E484K mutation, which some scientists refer to as “Eek,” was detected in 10 of the 14 people who tested positive in March at the University of Tokyo School of Medicine and Dentistry, according to the report. In the two months to March, 12 of the 36 covid patients carried the mutation, none of them had traveled abroad in the recent period and did not even report meeting people from outside the country.
Ahead of the Summer Olympics scheduled for July, Japan is battling a new wave of infections. Health experts are particularly concerned about the spread of mutant strains, even if large-scale vaccination of the population has not yet begun.
446 new infections were reported in Tokyo on Friday, although it is still well below the January high of 2,500. A record 666 cases were reported in Osaka. Health experts have also raised concerns about the spread of the British mutant strain. It is particularly concerning that, according to the NHK, none of the patients at the Tokyo hospital had a British strain, which is now responsible for the intensive spread of the epidemic in more and more countries, including Hungary.
Serum-derived and monoclonal antibodies are 10 to 60 times less effective at neutralizing the virus that carries the E484K mutation, according to previous studies, and on February 2, 2021, UK researchers examined 214,000 of the 11 variants called Eek. Experts say that the spread of the variant could jeopardize the effectiveness of vaccine programs because it has genes that help prevent the human body’s immune response.
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