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WALL IN WALL: According to the municipal chief, the outbreak in Trondheim must have started by an Edge Barbershop customer who, through close contact, led him to the Lille London pub right next door. Photo: David Engmo
New variant of the coronavirus discovered in Trondheim. – Changes we haven’t seen before, says FHI.
The municipal chief doctor, Tove Røsstad, said last week that the outbreak in Trondheim could be due to a mutation of the virus that could be more contagious.
Therefore, samples of the virus were sent from St. Olav Hospital on Friday for testing at FHI.
Already on Sunday, the municipal chief of Trondheim received the preliminary assessment: the virus had never been seen before in Norway.
This is confirmed by section leader Karoline Bragstad at FHI to VG, who says that there are three changes in the surface protein. This protein looks like a crown or thorn sticking out of the virus:
– We see marked changes in the surface proteins. Two changes shorten the label. It also has a slightly major change in the area that allows the virus to attach to the cells of the body, he tells VG.
This means that the coronavirus labels appear to be shorter than usual.
– We have identified that we can distinguish it from other viruses in Norway and that the Trondheim virus has changes that we have not seen before.
The currently mutated virus is called M439K and belongs to a genetic subgroup of the coronavirus called B.1.5.
SHORTEST LABELS: These are the virus labels, the protruding red crowns, the shortest in the Trondheim virus. This is an illustration image and does not show the shorter labels. Photo: Maksim Tkachenko / iStockphoto
– What do you have to say about the properties of the virus?
– We don’t really know, we are tracking others that are similar. It may be beneficial for the virus to have an abbreviated label, perhaps not. There seems to be a link to the UK, they have had some viruses that are similar and are missing these amino acids (the building blocks of the virus protein, journal. Note). But it is still early in the analytical work, says Bragstad.
She says they want to know more during Tuesday.
The crown mutation found after the bus trip in southern Norway also had changes in the area that cause the virus to bind to cells in the body. FHI then said that this mutation could possibly affect infectivity.
Bragstad says it is too early to say anything about the infectivity of the Trondheim mutation, but they are closely monitoring the situation to discover the characteristics.
Although the virus has not been seen before in Norway, it cannot be said with certainty that it was not in circulation at an earlier stage of the pandemic, because not all viruses are submitted for testing.
MUNICIPAL SUPERVISOR: Tove Røsstad, chief physician, said last week that the outbreak in Trondheim could be due to a mutation in the virus that could be more contagious. Photo: Håvard Jensen Håvard Haugseth Jensen (photo) / Adresseavisen
The outbreak in Trondheim has so far infected at least 35 and has quarantined about 1,500. Over the weekend, eight new ones were diagnosed with coronary heart disease. Six of them are related to the ongoing outbreak which includes the Edge hair salon, the Little London pub and the Bermuda bar.
The municipal chief points out that it is not yet clear whether this mutation is more contagious or what other properties it has.
– How these changes can affect the virus’s ability to infect or cause disease is not yet clear, says Karoline Bragstad, section leader of the National Institute of Public Health in a press release.
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The virus behaves differently
The municipal chief has previously said that the virus during the ongoing outbreak in the city, behaves differently:
– We see that it is easier to infect, that is, it takes less time to become infected. You don’t need to have as close contact as we usually experience. Also, you get sick faster, so the virus behaves differently, Røsstad told VG last week.
The municipal chief doctor, Tove Røsstad, believes that the corona infection came from a client of the Edge barbershop, who then brought the infection to little London next door.
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There are still many in quarantine, and the municipal chief believes that they will see more cases of infection in the coming days:
– Some of those in quarantine are expected to be positive.
– Have you already managed to quell the outbreak?
– It’s too soon to say that. We must continue to do so in the coming days. When the quarantine period is over, we have a more final decision. It will be exciting to see if there are any that have been lost that we have not caught.
She says they now have good control of the outbreak because it is the close contacts who are already in quarantine that test positive.
