[ad_1]
England’s chief medical officer has confirmed that a new mutant strain of Covid-19 is spreading faster, and work is urgently underway to see if it’s more deadly.
Professor Chris Whitty said the UK has informed the World Health Organization about the new variant.
At the moment, he said there is “no current evidence” to suggest that the new strain causes a higher death rate or affects vaccines, but work is underway to confirm this.
Professor Whitty said: “As announced on Monday, the UK has identified a new variant of Covid-19 through genomic surveillance from Public Health England.
“As a result of the rapid spread of the new variant, preliminary model data, and rapidly increasing incidence rates in the Southeast, the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threat Advisory Group (NERVTAG) now believes that the new strain may spread more quickly.
“We have alerted the World Health Organization and we continue to analyze the available data to improve our understanding.”
[ad_2]