The mutated coronavirus strain that’s been spreading within the UK appears to be more contagious than the already existing one, and likely to cause higher levels of hospitalizations and deaths next year, a new study showed.
The variant is 56% more contagious than other strains, found the latest study, which is consistent with the study conducted by the Centre for Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. There’s no clear evidence that it leads to more or less severe disease.
The mutated variant appears to be as much as 70% more transmissible than other circulating strains, said the UK government in its earlier statement.
Additionally, it’s almost two dozen mutations which will affect proteins made by the coronavirus, Patrick Vallance, the UK’s chief scientific adviser, said on Dec. 19
This has raised concerns over the tests, treatments and vaccines that have just started rolling; many people are worried that the vaccines could be less effective. Europe’s health regulator said the variant probably isn’t different enough from earlier ones to elude Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE’s shot. Countries including Australia, Denmark and Singapore have also discovered the strain.
Measures like England’s national lockdown in November are unlikely to scale back the reproduction number — the new infections estimated to stem from one case — to but 1 unless schools and universities also are closed, the report said.
It also said vaccine rollouts may have to be accelerated to contain its spread, to a rate of two million people every week from the present pace of 200,000.
As panic spread among people after the new strain of Coronavirus surfaced in the United Kingdom, the Health Ministry of India in a statement has clarified that the new strain of Covid-19 virus found in the UK has not been seen in India thus far .
“It’s incorrect to say that the new strain of the coronavirus has entered India until it’s established by a designated laboratory,” India Today quoted the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare as saying.
Held an insightful virtual interaction with Secretary of State for Health & Social Care of UK, Rt Hon’ble Mr @MattHancock, yesterday.
We discussed strengthing India-UK ties in health sector, India’s preparedness for rolling out #COVID19 #vaccine & new variant of SARS-CoV-2 in UK pic.twitter.com/weSFbKlsVq
— Dr Harsh Vardhan (@drharshvardhan) December 24, 2020
“To establish the presence of a mutant virus, it’s necessary to determine a genome sequencing which might be done only through designated labs of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Department of Biotechnology, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), and National Centre for Disease Control,” he further added.
The statement of the ministry came after genomic experts suggested that there’s a chance that half of those that have tested positive in India after coming from the UK could also be potential carriers of the new and more infectious Covid-19 strain.
So far, a minimum of 20 flyers from the UK have tested Covid-19 positive in India.
The Union Health Ministry on Tuesday also issued standard operating protocols for epidemiological surveillance. These include activities to be undertaken at the point of entry and in the community for all international passengers who have traveled to or through the UK in the past four weeks, from November 25 to December 23.