British scientists say that a new mutant of the novel coronavirus is spreading rapidly in the UK. The mutation of this mutant novel coronavirus means that children may be as vulnerable to infection as adults.
According to Reuters on the 21st, the British government’s Advisory Group on the Threat of New and Emerging Respiratory Viruses updated reporters on the same day.
The researchers said they were tracking the mutant coronavirus, which quickly became the most infected strain in the southern part of the United Kingdom and would even spread throughout the UK.
Neil Ferguson, professor of epidemiology at Imperial College London, said there are signs that mutant viruses are more likely to infect children.
“We haven’t established some kind of causal link, but we can observe from the data that we need to collect more data to study its mechanism of infection,” Ferguson said.
Ferguson’s colleague Wendy Barkley said that the mutation of the new virus is specifically manifested in changes in the way the virus invades human cells, which means that “children are likely to be as vulnerable as adults”.
Therefore, more cases of childhood infection can be expected. The new mutant virus is 70% more infectious than the previously discovered virus, and many countries and regions have closed their borders to the United Kingdom.
