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The mutated and suspected variant of the virus from England was detected in two people in Norway on Sunday.
In a recent risk report, FHI today warns that there is a high probability that the most infectious variant of the coronavirus will spread in Norway.
– The spread of the virus with a possible altered infectivity can have consequences for the epidemic and the control of the infection, writes FHI.
– FHI continuously analyzes incoming samples and prioritizes samples where there may be suspicions of the new variant, department head Line Vold tells Dagbladet.
Fear of the mutant virus: – The risk is high.
– Several variants
In the recent risk report, the institute also lists other virus variants that they believe have provided a basis for future research.
The variants mentioned are the “Tour bus variant”, the “Trondheim variant” and the “South Africa variant”.
– Since the beginning of the epidemic, several variants of the virus have emerged. Some of the variants have spread more or less due to coincidences, while other variants are assumed to have an evolutionary advantage and thus spread more easily, writes FHI in the risk report.
Variants that have changes in the so-called protein S, or that have significant changes in the virus genome, are of particular interest, the institute believes.
– Fear of mutated viruses from various countries
English variant
FHI’s sister institute in England, Public Health England, announced on December 14 that a new variant of SARS-CoV-2 had been detected, and that this variant now dominates the epidemic and is believed to be the cause of a rapid rise. of cases in the South East and East of England and London.
– The variant was first detected in September 2020, but it was not until mid-December that it became clear that the variant outperformed the wild type in these three regions of England, writes FHI in the recent risk assessment.
The increase began while the country was locked in November and continued when it fell to risk level 3.
More than a million minks infected with corona
Possibly developed in animals
The English variant of the virus is now called “VOC 202012/0”.
The variant has several amino acid changes in the important protein S (spike protein) on the surface, as well as mutations in the genes of other proteins.
– A high number of changes indicates that the virus has undergone a “jerk”, that is, a period of change faster than usual for SARS-CoV-2, writes the institute, adding that this development may have occurred rapidly. with a long-term infection in a person with a weakened immune system.
FHI believes that the variant is unlikely to have been developed by gradual changes along a chain of infection in England.
– Then I would have been caught in virus monitoring earlier. However, development may have taken place over time in other countries with weaker or no virus tracking, but this does not explain the large number of changes.
– It is also conceivable that the variant developed in animals that were infected by humans and later transmitted to humans, writes FHI.
Tourist bus options
Another variant of the virus to which FHI pays special attention is the one they have named “The tourist bus variant”
The virus from the Rogaland tour bus-related outbreak in late September belongs to subgroup B. 1,160, but also had an amino acid change (S477N) at an important position in protein S, which may affect the virus’s ability to bind to and infect cells, writes FHI.
According to the institute, events during the outbreak also indicated that the variants could have become more easily infected.
– The same mutation was observed sporadically in several counties in Norway in the aftermath, without direct cases of infection associated with the bus, writes FHI.
Viruses with this mutation no longer appear to exist in Norway, according to FHI. The outbreaks at the upper secondary school in Tromsø in November were the last episodes.
Extends downtime
The Trondheim variant
The outbreak in Trondheim in October related to nightclubs was caused by a virus in another subgroup, called B.1.5. These viruses also have significant changes in protein S, according to FHI, which also writes that this change can affect the virus’s ability to bind to cells and how contagious the virus is.
This virus has also been found in outbreaks in Hyllestad and Rana and was seen in increasing numbers in Oslo in November.
FHI assumes that the different outbreaks are due to separate imports from Eastern Europe and are otherwise unrelated to each other, as there are too large genetic differences between virus strains in other parts of the genome.
South African variant
This variant has been discovered in South Africa during a period of rapidly increasing epidemics and has more than 40 changes, including three changes in the receptor-binding domain on protein S, FHI states.
– The variant is different and has been developed independently from the English variant. South African authorities believe that it is this variant that is driving the epidemic now, writes FHI.
The so-called Danish mink virus is not mentioned in the recent risk report.
