The new strain of SARS-CoV-2 is becoming dominant as it spreads faster and increases hospital admissions in the UK, but there is no evidence that it is more deadly.
The appearance in the UK of a new strain of the coronavirus, much more contagious than the others, is worrying epidemiologists and has led several countries to suspend flights from British territory this Sunday.
So far it is known that:
It spreads faster and becomes dominant
It caused an increase in London infections and hospital admissions
The mutation appeared in London or Kent in mid-September
So far, there is nothing to indicate that it causes a higher death rate or affects vaccines and treatments.
The new strain contains a mutation called “N5017” in the coronavirus “spike” protein, which allows it to attach to human cells to penetrate them.
A new kind
The British government’s scientific advisor Patrick Vallance said on Saturday that this new variant of SARS-CoV-2 was not only spreading rapidly, but was becoming the ‘dominant’ form, leading to ‘a very sharp rise’ hospital admissions in December.
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The new species is said to have appeared in London or Kent (southeast) in mid-September.
“The Advisory Group on New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats (NERVTAG) believes this new species can spread more quickly,” England Chief Physician Chris Whitty said in a statement.
This idea is based on the finding of “a very strong increase in infection and hospital admissions in London and the South East, compared to the rest of England, in recent days,” said professor of medicine Paul Hunter, of the university. from East Anglia, quoted on Science Media Center website.
“This increase appears to be caused by the new strain,” he added, referring to information from health authorities.
However, “there is currently no evidence that this new strain causes a higher mortality rate or that it affects vaccines and treatments, but urgent work is underway to confirm that,” added Chris Whitty.
Epidemiologists involved
The information “about this new species is very concerning,” said Professor Peter Openshaw, an immunologist at Imperial College London, quoted by the Science Media Center. Especially since “it appears to be between 40% and 70% more transferable”.
“This is very bad news,” said Professor John Edmunds of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. “It appears that this virus is much more contagious than the previous strain.”
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On his Facebook page, French geneticist Axel Kahn recalled that “300,000 SARS-CoV-2 mutants in the world have been sequenced so far.”
The new strain contains a mutation called “N5017” in the coronavirus “spike” protein that allows it to attach to human cells to penetrate them.
According to Dr. Julian Tang, of the University of Leicester, “this N501Y mutation had been circulating sporadically long before this year outside the UK, in Australia in June-July, in the US in July, and in Brazil in April”.
“Coronaviruses are constantly mutating, so it is not surprising that new variants of SARS-CoV-2 are emerging,” recalls Professor Julian Hiscox of the University of Liverpool. “The most important thing is to try to find out whether this variant has properties that affect human health, diagnostics and vaccines.”
“The more viruses there are, and thus more people suffer from them, the more random mutations there will be” that are “beneficial for the virus,” added Axel Kahn.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in addition to “preliminary indications that the variant may be more contagious,” the strain in question “may also affect the effectiveness of some diagnostic methods,” yes, “said preliminary information.”
But “there is no evidence for any change in the severity of the disease,” although that question is also being explored.
Will the vaccines be effective?
Ewan Birney, deputy director general of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory and co-director of the European Institute of Bioinformatics in Cambridge, assured The Guardian that vaccines have been tested with many variants of the virus in circulation, ‘therefore there is reason to think that the vaccines will still work against this new strain, although this will of course require thorough testing. “
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Most coronavirus vaccines target the protein known as “spike” or “spike” that the virus uses to attach to human cells. Vaccines prepare the body to detect the spike protein so that the immune system can detect the virus. However, if the spike protein mutates, the body may not recognize the virus and vaccines may not be effective.
Professor Calum Semple, from the University of Liverpool, explained to The Telegraph that “some of the mutations occur in the key that the virus uses to unlock cells. And we see that every year with the flu and that is why the flu vaccine has to change year after year ”.
He added, “I would expect the vaccine to still be quite effective, as it is currently 95 percent effective. Even if we go down a few percentage points, it will still be good enough, and much better than many other vaccines on the market. “
The specialist added optimism: “The good news is that the new vaccines are essentially the same as the emails we send to the immune system, and they are very easy to modify. So when we know it’s changed a little bit, all we have to do is edit that email, change a few words and then the vaccine that will be ready in six or eight weeks is competent and better targeted at the new strain. “
For their part, European experts said this Sunday that the vaccines are effective against the mutant strain found in the UK. “As far as we know, and after discussions that have taken place between experts from the European authorities,” the new variant of the virus “has no impact on vaccines” that “remain just as effective,” he said. German Health Minister Jens Spahn on the public television channel ZDF.
“It would be very good news,” added the minister, whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union.
Suspension of flights
Confirming the level of transmissibility of this species prompted the British authorities to issue a new confinement in London and part of England, which would affect a total of 16 million inhabitants.
The WHO urged its members in Europe to “tighten up their controls”. Outside British territory, nine cases have been found in Denmark, one in the Netherlands and one in Australia, according to WHO.
For its part, the European Center for Disease Control (ECDC), which includes some 30 countries, including members of the EU and the United Kingdom, has not “ruled out” that the variant is already circulating outside British territory.
After the Netherlands and Belgium suspended all passenger flights from the United Kingdom on Sunday, other countries such as Italy, Romania and Germany have also announced that they will temporarily stop air connections.
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However, this list is not exhaustive, as many European governments are studying the possibility of taking similar measures.
In addition, Berlin is also preparing restrictions on air links with South Africa, where the same strain of the virus was detected.
Belgium announced on Monday that the variant of the coronavirus identified in the United Kingdom has been circulating in Belgium for at least a month, along with the Netherlands and Italy, which have also announced that they have discovered that strain.
“This variant is not limited to the United Kingdom, it has been found in other places in the world, including the Netherlands and Belgium,” said Yves Van Laethem, spokesman for the technical team against the corona virus, at a press conference on Monday.
The virologist added that “there are currently 4 known cases in Belgium and that detection was done a month ago.”
“It is possible that more cases are circulating in our country and in other countries of continental Europe,” said Van Laethem.
The virologist recalled that this mutation has been known “since September” and currently represents “60% of new infections in the UK”.
“There are even more variants circulating in our country and other countries (…). It is completely normal for variants to appear ‘and’ eventually become dominant, ‘added Van Laethem, who noted that it is not known whether the new variant will transfer more easily and’ we still have to wait for some amount of data to see if it’s really more contagious ”.
“In any case, nothing shows us that it is more violent, aggressive or more dangerous to our health. Nothing shows us that vaccines prevent us from giving us immunity to Covid marked with that variant, ”he added.
The Belgian expert attributed the fact that the variant was identified in the United Kingdom to the fact that that country has “one of the most efficient and comprehensive genetic surveillance and research programs in the world”, making it “systematically between 5 and 10% of the samples to know their genetic makeup ”.
“Many other countries are much more limited in the percentage of samples they study in depth,” said Van Laethem, who pointed out that the UK is not the only place where infections are significantly on the rise, which is also the case in the Netherlands. Denmark, Czech Republic and Slovakia. .
In any case, he recommended “not to travel and to limit travel as much as possible”.
Belgium, like Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy or Austria, Canada or Israel, announced this Sunday that it will temporarily close air and train connections with the United Kingdom for at least 24 hours because of the new variant of the corona virus that is in that country.