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LONDON (REUTERS) – Below are details of a new variant of the coronavirus that has been identified in the UK, given at a press conference on Saturday (December 19) by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Patrick Vallance, the Britain’s chief scientific advisor, and Chris Whitty. , the chief medical advisor.
– The new variant is believed to have been first produced in mid-September in London or Kent in south-east England.
– British analysis suggests that it can be up to 70 percent more transmissible than the previous variant, which could increase the “R” reproduction rate by 0.4.
– There is no evidence to suggest it is more lethal or causes more serious disease.
– There is no evidence to suggest that vaccines are less effective against the new variant.
– The new variant contains 23 different changes, many of them associated with alterations in a protein produced by the virus.
Vallance said it was an unusually large number of changes.
– It has variants in areas of the virus that are known to be associated with the way the virus attaches to cells and enters cells.
– The variant has spread rapidly in London, the south-east and east of England, becoming the dominant form of the virus in these areas.
– In London, 62 percent of cases were due to the new variant in the week of December 9. That compared to 28 percent three weeks earlier.
– In London, the overall infection rate doubled in the last week.
– In areas where the new variant was dominant, hospital admission rates were increasing rapidly and previously agreed social restrictions were no longer strong enough.
– Vallance said he thought the new variant could be in other countries as well, but that it could have started in Britain.
– The UK presented its findings to the World Health Organization on Friday evening.
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