COVID VIRUS NEW STRAIN DEC 2020

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 COVID VIRUS NEW STRAIN DEC 2020

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• Viruses change all the time. Seasonal influenza mutates every year, which is why there is an updated flu jab annually. So it was of little surprise to scientists that variants of COVID-19 have been detected since the pandemic started.
• The highly infectious variant of coronavirus that has emerged in south-east England is spreading rapidly to the rest of the UK and is already present elsewhere in the world. The broad symptoms of the new strain are the same – high temperature, persistent dry cough and a loss or change in taste and smell.
• The new variant, which has been named VUI-202012/01 (the first Variant Under Investigation in December 2020), is thought to have first occurred in mid-September in the UK's southeast, in the capital London or the county of Kent.
• The World Health Organisation (WHO) said its Evolution Working Group (EWG) is working closely with the UK medical authorities to understand how the variant, now called B.1.1.7, is likely to affect the course of the pandemic. It has been detected in the Netherlands, Denmark and Australia.
• Scientists say two aspects of B.1.1.7 give cause for concern. One is the unprecedented number of mutations it carries. The other is the speed with which it is supplanting other strains of the Sars-Cov-2 virus in south-east England.
• Experts said 23 letters in the viral genetic code had changed, of which 17 might affect the behaviour of the virus — in particular helping it to enter and propagate within human cells.
• There is no evidence so far that the mutations are affecting the course of the illness in people who are infected with B.1.1.7 or the effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines under development.
• Hospitalisation rates have gone up recently [in south-east England] but roughly in line with the increase in case numbers, which doesn’t point to the new strain leading to more severe symptoms.
• Experts said it'd be very surprising if any evidence arose that it creates more serious symptoms. It’s also not a strain that should be able to escape protection provided by immunisation caused by the current vaccines or prior infection.
• Regular Covid-19 tests do not detect viral mutations. Variants can only be identified through a readout of all 30,000 letters of genetic code in each Sars-Cov-2 sample using specialised sequencing machines.
• The increased infectivity of the variant is illustrated by the fact that, after appearing in Kent on September 20, it was responsible for 28 per cent of infections in London by early November and 62 per cent in the week ending December 9.
• Computer modelling suggests that it is 70 per cent more transmissible than other Sars-Cov-2 strains circulating in the UK and raises the R value — the average number of people to whom someone with Covid-19 passes the infection — by 0.4, which makes the pandemic far harder to control without stringent lockdown measures.
• According to the Covid-19 Genomics Consortium UK, labs have sequenced 1,623 Sars-Cov-2 viral genomes showing the B.1.1.7 variant. These include 519 in London, 555 in Kent, 545 elsewhere in the UK including Scotland and Wales, and four in other countries.
• All viruses mutate and B.1.1.7 is not the first variant to cause concern. Examples include the D614G mutation that emerged early in the pandemic and moderately increases the transmissibility of Covid-19. That strain spread from Spain to the rest of Europe over the summer. The Y453F mutation arose in Danish mink but has not spread widely in other countries.
• The strain now causing most international concern, besides B.1.1.7, is a different variant in South Africa called 501.V2. 
• As per experts, 501.V2 is increasing the “viral load” — the amount of virus present in patients — “which may translate to a higher efficiency of transmission.” Preliminary findings in the UK suggest that B.1.1.7 is having a similar effect.

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