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The day the announcement comes, directly from Prime Minister Boris Johnson, that more than half a million people in the UK have received their first dose of the vaccine, it turns out that the new English strain of Covid-19, up to 70% more contagious, is linked to an increase in infections across the country.
From early reports that the new variant appeared to be limited to London and southern England, the government’s chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance, has confirmed that it is found “everywhere”. This means that a more intense lockdown across the country could be underway, leading to even tighter company and business closures.
Fears that the tension will spread to the rest of the world has caused more than 40 countries to close their borders to travelers from the UK. Currently, some 1,500 trucks are stopped, blocked at the border.
The new strain of English is most contagious among children
But the news is not only there greater contagion of the new English variant, although in front of a lethality, it seems, the same. The English strain of Coronavirus, named VUI-2020 12/01, could also be most contagious among children.
David nabarro, a Covid-19 expert from the World Health Organization, warned that the new strain of the virus, which has spread in Britain, appears to spread easily among young people.
Nabarro, one of the six special envoys of the WHO, explained to Sky News that now people should be even more “cautious” about this new variant of the virus, especially with the back to school after Christmas break. Of course, schools are not immune to contagion, although contained compared to other contexts, but now, Nabarro warns, there is one more reason to be “substantially more cautious.”
The school knot
Professor Mark Harris, a virologist at the University of Leeds, is also of the same opinion. According to him, there is a “concern” that if this strain is replicating further in children, it could have a ripple effect on the spread of the virus throughout the UK population.
There are several people in Britain who are convinced that schools should start preparing for distance education in early January, because the rise in infections may be too high for schools to reopen.
The UK government’s New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threat Advisory Group (Nervtag) is monitoring the data to see ifThe increase in Covid cases coincided with the spread of the new strain among children and young people.
The earliest strains of coronavirus, as we know, have had a more difficult time penetrating children than adults, and one reason is that the smallest have fewer receptors called ACE2 that the virus uses to enter the cells of the human body.
Vaccine and severity of the English variant
The experts however, they currently do not believe that the new variant poses a threat greater for children’s health. And this is extraordinary news.
Furthermore, preliminary evidence says that the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine, which has already started testing the variant, would also work against English actionalthough more research will need to be done. Ugur Sahin, researcher and CEO of BioNTech, said that “the probability that our vaccine will work is relatively high.”
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