The coronavirus is mutating and its latest strain that is said to spread the fastest has spread fear in several countries before Christmas. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson responded immediately to the new tension by imposing the strictest blockade on London. The mutant virus, which UK officials say is 70% transmissible, was found in south-east England in September and has been moving around the world, according to an official with the World Health Organization (WHO ), AP reported.
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Several European nations and other countries have also tried to distance themselves from the UK after news broke that the virus strain was fully spreading. Many have imposed travel bans to address the crisis.
Researchers in Sweden had found a new mutation in the virus as early as April. They observed two changes in the genetic material of the virus that appeared to make it twice as potent in transmission, the AP cited Dr. Ravi Gupta, a virologist at the University of Cambridge in England. Gupta said that around 6,000 cases of the new virus were reported worldwide, mainly in Denmark and England.
Since then many more variations in the genome have been discovered, it was also reported that people in Denmark obtained the new strain from mink farms. The new strain that is driving the second wave in South Africa was also reported on Friday. South African health officials believed that the newly discovered strain of coronavirus appears to be spreading faster, but the severity of the disease due to the mutations is still unknown.
Italy is another of those countries where the new strain of the virus discovered in the United Kingdom has been found. Italy reported Sunday that it has found the new strain of coronavirus in a person who has recently returned from the UK.
France also reported Monday that there is a possibility that the new strain of coronavirus is also spreading in the country. “It is very possible that the virus is circulating in France,” French health minister Olivier Veran was quoted as saying by Reuters. However, recent tests have not yet detected the mutant.
Australia also reported Monday on the mutant strain of coronavirus detected in the UK. Two UK returnees in South Wales from Australia have been identified with the new strain of the deadly virus, both are now in quarantine, Reuters reported.
Viruses evolve through minor changes to a letter or two in their genetic database. New modifications can become a major stress in a region due to its evolution there or due to any event that helped it spread. Pathogens mutate to survive in order to defeat the evolving human immune system, as well as vaccines that threaten their survival. These mutations determine the severity of the disease, the transmissibility of the virus, and the relationship of the virus to the human cell that can cause infection.
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