February 16 Another variant of COVID-19 with potentially worrying variations has been found in the country, says British experts.
According to the Guardian on the 15th, in a report by researchers at the University of Edinburgh, the variant was named B1525.
The Variant has been detected in 10 countries, including Denmark, the United States and Australia, through genome sequencing, and 32 confirmed cases have been found so far in the UK, the researchers said.
According to the report, 35 cases caused by the Variant virus have been found in Denmark, 12 in Nigeria, 7 and 5 in the United States and 5 in France, and less than 5 in Ghana, Australia, Canada, Jordan and Spain. The earliest sequence can be traced back to December.
The report said that the new variant of the virus has “potentially disturbing set of variation possibilities”.
The team said that the variant is genome-like with the variant B117 discovered by Kent, and it contains many variations that concern researchers, including the E484K variation of spiny protein, which is found outside the virus and can play an important role in helping the virus enter the cell.
Lucy van Dorp of the Institute of Genetics at University College London said that rapid detection of new varieties is crucial.
“One of the main advantages of genome monitoring is to collect Variant virus lines of potential concern early, so that their impact and prevalence can be quickly assessed in other parts of the world,” Van Dopp said.
