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LONDON: A rapidly spreading new variant of the coronavirus in Britain carries mutations that could mean that children are as susceptible to being infected with it as adults, unlike previous strains, scientists said on Monday (December 21).
Briefing journalists on the latest findings, scientists from the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threat Advisory Group (NERVTAG) who are tracking the variant said that it had quickly become the dominant strain in southern Britain and that it would soon it could do the same across the country.
“We are now very confident that this variant has a transmission advantage over other virus variants currently found in the UK,” said Peter Horby, Professor of Emerging Infectious Diseases at the University of Oxford and Chairman of NERVTAG.
“There is an indication that it has a higher propensity to infect children,” said Neil Ferguson, professor and epidemiologist of infectious diseases at Imperial College London and also a member of NERVTAG.
“We haven’t established any kind of causality on that, but we can see it in the data,” Ferguson said. “We will need to collect more data to see how it performs in the future.”
READ: WHO says no need to be alarmed by new COVID-19 strain
The emergence of the mutated variant of SARS-CoV-2, which scientists say is up to 70 percent more transmittable than previous strains in the UK, has prompted some countries to close their borders with Great Britain and has led to large areas of the country to severe restrictions. during the Christmas period.
Wendy Barclay, another NERVTAG professor and a virology specialist at Imperial, said that among the mutations in the new variant are changes in the way it enters human cells, which may mean “that children are, perhaps, equally more susceptible to this virus than adults. “.
“Therefore, given their mixing patterns, it is to be expected that more children will be infected,” Barclay said.
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