A mutant strain of the novel coronavirus - first identified in the UK in September and which according to Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist at the World Health Organisation, is rapidly replacing other variations of the virus - may already be present in several countries, told a news agency. However, she also said it is still too early to come to any judgement about the new variant of Covid which initial data suggests is up to 70 per cent more transmissible.
She said that it is "unlikely a couple of mutations" could affect the immune system's response to one of the existing Covid vaccines.
Dr Swaminathan said, "The UK is one of those countries that is doing a lot of whole genome sequencing and is, therefore, able to track this very closely in real-time.” Suspecting that many countries can have this variant or a related variant present there, Swaminathan adds that countries should look at their data.
Cases of this new strain have been reported from Italy, Australia, Denmark and Netherlands as well, with another aggressive strain in South Africa.
Dr Swaminathan said, "There have been mutations (of other viruses) in the past that become the dominant variant going forward. This may just be another such variant. It is unlikely that a couple of mutations in the spike protein could change the response of the immune system to the vaccine."
She said we need experiments to better understand the new UK strain - labelled B.1.1.7 - were taking place, but it will take time to come with the results. "For now, we encourage countries to do more sequencing. India has a huge capacity to do whole genome sequencing (one of the keys to developing an effective vaccine). India is already contributing quite a lot to a global database that has close to 300,000 sequences," she said.
The UK variant is currently not affecting most of the Covid-19 diagnostic tests either, according to Maria Van Kerkhove, technical lead on COVID-19 response at the WHO Health Emergencies Program, as most of the tests are looking at multiple targets within the genome.
But very few tests that have only looked at a single target may be impacted in detecting this particular variant, she added.
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The WHO experts urged the public to keep implementing existing public health measures, including wearing masks, hand hygiene and social distancing, which have been proven to be effective in curbing the spread of the virus, including the latest variants.
The mutated version of the coronavirus has rapidly spread in the UK already leading to a surge in cases and putting the country on stricter lockdown. While 30 nations including India have temporarily suspended incoming flights from the UK.