A new strain of Covid-19 is spreading across the UK – barely emerging a week after the vaccine was introduced.
And as health chiefs reveal a new alternative to Corona Virus It has caused at least 1,000 cases so far, mostly in southeast England, and questions have been raised about whether or not it is Vaccine He can beat it.
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What is the new Covid strain?
Designated VUI – 01/202012 – 1st variant under investigation in December.
It was first recognized in September, according to scientists at the COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium (COG-UK), who were working with Public Health England (PHE).
Hancock said government scientists at PHE’s Porton Down Laboratory are analyzing the strain “now”.
How fast does the new Covid strain spread?
It is feared that the new strain of coronavirus is 70 percent more contagious than the original Covid insect.
A government source said: “What we don’t know yet is whether the new strain is more or less likely to cause you harm, but what we have learned is that it will spread to person to person more easily and that’s where we are now. Really worried.”
Professor Chris Whitty, chief medical officer in England, said the UK had informed the World Health Organization that the new coronavirus could spread more quickly.
He said: “As a result of the rapid spread of the new variant, initial modeling data and rapidly increasing infection rates in the southeast, the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG) now considers that the new strain can spread more rapidly.”
“We have been alerted by the World Health Organization and are continuing to analyze available data to improve our understanding.
“There is no current evidence to suggest that the new strain causes a higher mortality rate or that it affects vaccines and treatments, although urgent work is underway to confirm this.
“Given this latest development, it is now more vital than ever that the public continue to take action in their area to reduce transmission.”
Health Minister Matt Hancock told MPs the alternative could fuel a “faster spread” in southeast England.
Hancock said the numbers of cases linked to the latter strain were increasing “rapidly,” as he urged everyone to adhere to the COVID-19 restrictions.
Ministers were informed on December 11 that the breed had first appeared in Kent, Sky News reported.
The cases have been identified in Wales and Scotland, Professor Tom Connor, a COG-UK member from Cardiff University’s School of Biological Sciences, said.
Kent is currently fighting an uphill battle with the disease, and has some of the UK’s highest cases of Covid despite the toughest restrictions in place since December 2.
London and parts of Essex and Herefordshire have now been moved to Level 3 to deal with “very sharp and accelerating rises” in cases.
How dangerous is it?
Despite warnings that the new strain is further spreading the Corona virus, experts said there is no evidence that it is more dangerous.
Alan McNally, professor of microbial evolutionary genomics at the University of Birmingham, told the BBC: “Let’s not be hysterical. That doesn’t mean it’s more transmissible, more contagious, or more dangerous.”
“It is something to watch.”
He added: “It is important to maintain a calm and rational perspective about the strain because this is a natural evolution of the virus and we expect new variants to emerge and go over time.”
Will the Covid vaccine work against the new strain?
The vaccine being rolled out in the NHS – from Pfizer and BioNTech – has not been tested to see if it protects against this new strain.
Professor Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, has admitted, in the long term, that the mutations could make the virus resistant to a vaccine.
But all the Covid-19 doses developed focus on the same target – the spiky protein on the surface of the virus.
The health minister said it was “extremely unlikely” that the new strain would render the vaccine ineffective – something other experts agreed.
Scientists have weighed in to say that changing a vaccine won’t be a difficult task if necessary.
What is the mink strain from Covid?
This is not the first time the UK has been warned of a new strain of the Covid virus.
The latest developments Strains of coronavirus that have been discovered in cultured mink threaten Europe’s battle Against a deadly disease.
In Denmark, mink was infected with the virus that causes Covid-19 after being exposed to infected humans.
The World Health Organization has said that the coronavirus strains that infect mink, and that are later transmitted to humans, may have acquired “unique sets of mutations.”
Six countries – Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Italy and the United States – reported the virus in farmed mink animals, which date back to June.
This led to the culling of millions of farmed mink in Denmark after authorities found genetic changes that they said could undermine the effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines.
What other Covid mutant strains are there?
British scientists are 4000 deadly strains of Corona virus have already been detected, On the basis that there have been tens of thousands of mutations since the virus first appeared a year ago.
Scientists from the University of California, along with experts from Cirad, Universite de la Reunion and the University of Oxford, recently published a review of the strains that have been discovered so far.
They analyzed a global data set of virus genomes from 46,723 people, collected through the end of July 2020.
Teams have so far identified 12,706 Sars-Cov-2 mutations – the correct name for the coronavirus.
What is a mutation?
A mutation is a change in the virus’s genome, a set of genetic instructions that contains all the information the virus needs to function.
When a virus contacts a host and begins replicating, this set of instructions is copied, but errors can occur during this process.
Like all infectious agents, Covid-19 mutates as it spreads among humans, but this is often without any real effect on the virus.
Often these mutations can be linked to the spike protein form of the virus.
The Covid-19 Genomics UK Consortium (Cog-UK) is tracking new genetic variants as they spread and investigating whether these changes lead to detectable changes in the behavior of the virus or the severity of Covid-19 infection.
Most of the mutations that arise and spread have no detectable effect on virus biology.
But few have the potential to alter the biological behavior of the virus and persistence if it gives the virus an advantage.
One specific variant (D614G variant) was previously discovered and is believed to be the dominant strain in Europe before it became established in the United States, Canada and Australia.
Dr Davidson said D614G was “thought to spread more easily but does not cause greater disease”.
in October, Experts said a new boom from Spain may have triggered the second wave in the UK.
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Researchers led by the University of Bern in Switzerland said the 20A.EU1 strain was first detected in June in farm workers in Catalonia and Aragon.
The strain was responsible for 90 percent of new infections in Spain in June, and it may have spread across Europe due to tourists visiting the country.
The study claimed that in September and October, the new strain accounted for about 50 percent of infections in the United Kingdom.
