- A new strain of the new coronavirus that is spreading from Europe to the US is more infectious than its predecessor, but is not making people sicker than before, according to a new global study first reported by CNN.
- The researchers call the new strain G614 and the old strain D614. One of the researchers who worked on the study told CNN that the new mutation is “now the dominant form that infects people.”
- “Our global follow-up data shows that the G614 variant on Spike has spread faster than D614,” the study said. “We interpret this to mean that the virus is likely to be more infectious. Interestingly, we found no evidence of the impact of G614 on the severity of the disease.”
- The study comes as the United States faces a resurgence of the coronavirus outbreak after several states began reopening earlier than recommended.
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A new strain of the new coronavirus that is spreading from Europe to the US is more infectious than its predecessor, according to a new global study published in the journal Cell and first reported by CNN.
Erica Ollmann Saphire, a researcher at the La Jolla Institute of Immunology who worked on the study, told CNN that the mutation is “now the dominant form that infects people.”
“This is now he virus, “Saphire added. The researchers call the new virus mutation, which causes a disease known as COVID-19, G614. The previous strain is called D614.
“Our global follow-up data shows that the G614 variant on Spike has spread faster than D614,” the study said. “We interpret this to mean that the virus is likely to be more infectious. Interestingly, we found no evidence of the impact of G614 on the severity of the disease.”
“Until March 1, 2020, the G614 variant was rare outside of Europe, but by the end of March its frequency had increased worldwide,” they wrote. “The increase in G614 frequency often continues long after the stay-at-home orders are in place and after the next two-week incubation period.”
The United States is currently seeing a resurgence of the coronavirus outbreak after several states across the country began to reopen despite the fact that they failed to meet one or more of the reopening guidelines that the White House had put forth.
White House guidelines say states should see a two-week decrease in new cases or a two-week decrease in their share of positive tests for coronavirus before reopening. But according to The New York Times, 18 of the 30 states that began reopening as of May 7 still saw a daily increase in new cases, while nine of the 30 states had no decrease in their percentage of positive tests.
Six states reopened without meeting any of the criteria: Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Nebraska, Utah, and Iowa.
On Friday, the US reported 51,842 new cases, making it the third consecutive day that the country reported more than 50,000 new infections.
Florida, Texas, Arizona and California reported a record number of new cases this week; According to CNN, Florida reported nearly 9,500 new cases on Friday, and Texas reported 7,555 new cases after reporting around 8,000 new cases on two consecutive days.
The World Health Organization declared the new coronavirus a pandemic in March. The United States has reported a total of 2,795,437 cases of the disease and 129,438 deaths since the disease took hold in the country in January.
Multiple states have paused their reopening plans to mitigate the spread of the disease, while others have taken additional precautions to ensure they don’t see a resurgence of new cases within their borders. Earlier this week, New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut jointly announced that people coming from eight states with a large number of new cases should be quarantined for two weeks.
Meanwhile, the European Union has banned all travelers from the US, as it begins to reopen its borders cautiously because EU officials don’t believe the country has done adequate work to control the coronavirus outbreak. . Travelers from Brazil and Russia will also not be able to enter the region.
