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A more infectious new strain of coronavirus reported in parts of Britain has prompted the government and other countries, including Germany and Italy, to impose a travel ban from Britain.
The government said that in response to the new strain of the virus detected in south-east England, it was banning all flights for at least 48 hours starting at midnight on Sunday.
It is common for viruses to mutate and thousands of variants of the virus have been identified since it first appeared at a fish market in the Chinese city of Wuhan more than a year ago.
What has concerned British public health officials is that they have said that this latest mutation of the virus allows the virus to more efficiently bind to cells within the body and that it has been shown to be more infectious and has the potential to produce more virus once the infection is established in the body.
This coincides with further spread in London and South East England, leading UK public health officials to suggest that this stain is more efficient at infecting and transmitting between people.
“While viruses are known and expected to constantly change through mutation leading to the emergence of new variants, preliminary analysis in the UK suggests that this variant is significantly more transmissible,” said the European Center for the Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in a threat assessment note released Sunday.
‘More contagious’
Initial findings from Britain suggest that this variant could increase breeding numbers, the rate at which it spreads, by at least 0.4, the ECDC note says. This means there could be four more infections for every 10 people infected, with an increase in transmissibility of up to 70 percent.
Should we be worried?
“There are a lot of things we don’t know about this but, from what we do, I would be very concerned, mainly because UK public health officials suggest that this variant of the virus spreads more easily and there is some lab data to show that it’s more infectious, ”said Professor Paddy Mallon, infectious disease consultant at St Vincent Hospital in Dublin and at UCD.
There is nothing to suggest that the new strain will affect the Covid-19 vaccine, he said, but there was “theoretical potential” that people who had Covid could be reinfected by this strain.
If it is easier to transmit between people, this has the potential to force a fundamental change in the way the government controls the virus and the strategy of “living with Covid-19” with the five levels of restrictions on public movement, the mix and economic activity. , according to Professor Mallon.
Severe restrictions
Since more infections would mean that more people would become seriously ill from Covid-19, which in turn means more pressure on hospitals, the government could be forced to apply severe restrictions for longer and abandon the idea of progressive restrictions and relaxation of measures, if there is a new strain in the community that spreads more.
This possibility, in the opinion of Professor Mallon, justifies the ban on travel from Great Britain for 48 hours to allow surveillance of the “sequencing” of the virus detected in the state to see if the mutant is circulating here.
Other scientists say there is no data yet to conclude that this strain is more transmissible.
Dr. Anne Moore, a professor of biochemistry and cell biology at UCC, says this mutant virus is likely to be better able to infect cells and be “better able to replicate,” but that does not theoretically mean that it is more transmissible. More studies are required to determine this, he said.
Akke Vellinga, an epidemiologist at NUI Galway, said: “We can see that it is spreading very fast through a population where this new variant is spreading faster than it was, but that’s survival of the fittest, that’s how it works. adapts the virus. “
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