The UK issued tougher restrictions over the holiday season, and officials said a new, more contagious strain of the coronavirus was spreading rapidly in South East England.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the new strain is up to 70% more transmissible than other variants, and that it is already responsible for more than 62% of COVID-19 infections in London.
So what do we know about this new species that is prompting UK officials to take more drastic steps to limit the spread of COVID-19?
When did officials first report on the new form of coronavirus?
British Health Secretary Matt Hancock first announced that there was a new variant of the coronavirus (a mutated version of the virus) in London and South East England on December 14 in the House of Commons.
“The initial analysis suggests that this variant is growing faster than the existing ones,” Hancock warned, saying it could be responsible for rapidly increasing cases in the south-east of England, officials would confirm later in the week.
Hancock said more than 1,000 cases had been identified in 60 different municipalities.
Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s technical leader on COVID-19, said Monday that “ we have no evidence so far that this variant behaves differently, ” but UK officials said Saturday it was more transferable, a reflection in part of how quickly scientists are learning about the virus.
“We are aware of this genetic variant being reported in 1,000 people in England,” said Dr. Mike Ryan, director of the WHO emergency program. “This particular variant appears to be more common in the UK,” he added on Monday.
“These kinds of evolution or mutations like this are actually quite common,” said Dr. Ryan, adding that there were several questions about significant variants. He said the UK officials were very transparent and had already shared the variant’s genome sequence.
“This is a variant, the N501Y, which is actually already being monitored by our virus evolution working group. It emerges in the context of a mink variant identified elsewhere,” Van Kerkhove said on Monday.
That N501Y is just one of the changes in this British variant, according to a study of the variant’s genome published on Saturday.
Hancock said they don’t think this coronavirus strain will not respond to a vaccine.
What are the changes in this coronavirus strain?
The UK’s chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, said on Saturday that the new variant has 23 changes, “many of which are related to changes in the protein that makes the virus.”
“This is an unusually large number of variants. There are also variants in parts of the virus that are known to be related to how the virus binds to and enters cells,” Vallance said. “So there are some changes that are of concern in terms of what the virus looks like.”
He said studies and analyzes had shown the species to be more transmissible, meaning it spread more quickly.
This variant first appeared in September and was responsible for 28% of COVID-19 cases in London in November. By the week of December 9, more than 62% of London’s COVID-19 cases were of this new variant, officials said.
“So what this tells us is that this new variant is not only moving fast, it is also increasing in terms of its ability to transmit, but it is becoming the dominant variant. It beats the others in terms of transmission,” Vallance said.
Officials said that due to its higher transmissibility, the variant would lead to an increase in the country’s reproduction number – the R number – which is the average number of secondary infections from a single infected person.
That number is currently between 1.1 and 1.2 in England, meaning that “on average every 10 people infected infects between 11 and 12 other people,” the UK government said.
That number could increase by 0.4 due to the new variant, officials said Saturday, meaning the epidemic would spread much faster. Any R number above one means the epidemic is growing.
Does this new variant cause a more serious disease?
British officials say they don’t think the new variant causes more serious illnesses or deaths, but it is spreading faster, which could cause major problems for infection rates.
“There is currently no evidence to suggest that the new strain causes a higher death rate or that it affects vaccines and treatments, although urgent work is underway to confirm this,” said Professor Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer. in a statement released Saturday.
Vallance added on Saturday that there was no evidence that this variant causes more hospital admissions, but that it is a matter of transmission for now.
“This virus spreads more easily and therefore more measures are needed to keep it under control,” he added.