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It is feared that a new variant of the coronavirus may be accelerating the spread of Covid-19, particularly in southeast England.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said there is nothing to suggest that this new strain is more likely to cause serious illness.
Boris Johnson was reported to have held an unscheduled ministerial meeting on Friday amid “growing concern” about the threat posed by the mutant strain, which is spreading more rapidly in south-east England.
Professor Sir Mark Walport, a member of the Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), said there was a real possibility that it could have a “transmission advantage.”
“The thing about viruses is that they mutate naturally all the time and the ones that are likely to do well are the ones that increase transmission,” he told BBC2’s Newsnight.
“We know that this is a new variant, it has been seen in other countries but it seems to be quite widespread which suggests that it has a transmission advantage.
“Scientists are working very hard to find out what is going on. But it definitely seems possible that this is more easily transmitted.
“It will make social distancing even more critical.”
Downing Street declined to comment on reports that new travel restrictions for south-east England are among the measures ministers are considering.
Here’s what we know about the new strain:
Is this something unusual?
There have been many mutations in the virus since it emerged in 2019.
This is to be expected: SARS-CoV-2 is an RNA virus and these viruses mutate and change.
Public Health England (PHE) said that, as of December 13, 1,108 cases with this new variant had been identified, predominantly in the south and east of England.
It has been named VUI – 202012/01 – the first variant investigated in December.
Is this something to worry about?
Not enough is known about the new strain yet, but it is premature to make claims about the possible impacts of the virus mutation.
But if the virus spreads faster it will be more difficult to control.
However, there have already been several strains of Covid-19 with no real consequences.
It could be potentially serious, but not enough is known, and surveillance and investigation will continue.
The Covid-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) consortium said it is difficult to predict whether a given mutation is important when it first arises and that it would take “considerable time and effort to test the effect of many thousands of combinations of mutations. “. .
He said the biggest concern is changes that lead to increased reinfections or vaccine failure, and the greatest focus is on mutations in the gene that encodes the spike protein.
There are currently around 4,000 mutations in the spike protein gene.
Is it the first new strain detected in the UK?
Several variants have been detected by sequencing studies in the UK.
A specific variant (the D614G variant) has previously been detected in Western Europe and North America that is believed to spread more easily but does not cause major disease.
But this is believed to be the first strain that PHE will investigate in such detail.
(Image: AP)
Are new variants always a bad thing?
Not necessarily. They could even be less virulent.
However, if they spread more easily but cause the same severity of illness, more people will end up getting sick in a shorter period of time.
Should we expect the virus to become more harmful?
Not really. Only changes that improve virus transmission are likely to be stable and lead to new circulating strains.
The pressure on the virus to evolve is increased by the fact that so many millions of people have been infected.
Most mutations will not be significant or cause for concern, but some may give the virus an evolutionary advantage that can lead to further transmission or mean that it is more harmful.
Will the vaccines still work?
Hancock said the latest clinical advice is that this mutation is highly unlikely to not respond to a vaccine.
The vaccine produces antibodies against many regions of the spike protein, and a single change is unlikely to make the vaccine less effective.
However, this could happen over time as more mutations occur, as happens every year with the flu.
PHE said that this new variant includes a mutation in the spike protein and that changes in this part of the spike protein can make the virus more infectious and spread more easily between people.
What are scientists doing now?
Scientists will grow the new strain in the lab to see how it responds.
This includes looking at whether it produces the same antibody response, how it reacts to the vaccine, and modeling the new strain.
It could take up to two weeks for this complete process to complete.
COG-UK is conducting randomized sequencing of positive samples across the UK to compile a sequencing coverage report, which is sent to each of the four public health agencies every week.
He said that random sampling is important to capture regional coverage.
If it’s not that important, why do we care?
While other variants have been identified in the past, it appears that this particular strain is spreading quite rapidly, which means it could be more transmissible and therefore warrants further investigation.
Professor Sir Mark Walport, a member of the Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), said there was a possibility that it could have a “transmission advantage.”
What examples are there of other virus strains?
The Danish government euthanized millions of minks after it became known that hundreds of Covid-19 cases in the country were associated with variants of SARS-CoV-2 associated with farm minks, including 12 cases with a unique variant, reported on 5 of November.
In October, a study suggested that a variant of the coronavirus that originated in Spanish farm workers spread rapidly across Europe and accounted for the majority of cases in the UK.
The variant, called 20A.EU1, is known to have spread from farm workers to local populations in Spain in June and July, and people who then return from their holidays in Spain likely played a key role in the spread of the strain across Europe.
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