The British government confirmed, yesterday Tuesday, that “follow very closely” the appearance of a “descendant” of the Delta variant of the coronavirus. He detailed that could be 10-15% more transmissible than this, which is already twice as contagious as the original SARS-CoV-2.
The experts they have named it “AY.4.2” and they warn that its frequency has increased in the UK, where could it be responsable now of almost 10% of Covid cases, as explained by two experts to the headline ‘Financial Times’.
Its prevalence, they added, is increasing rapidly, but not as fast as the first delta did after moving from India to India earlier this year.
This is the new mutation
This “new lineage of SARS-CoV-2” is “descendant” of the delta variant (B.1.167.2) and “has two characteristic mutations“in protein S,” Y145H “and” A222V “, which could offer the virus advantages to survive, noted in the publication ‘Science Media Center’, Francois balloux, one of the two experts cited by the FT.
If preliminary tests are confirmed, “AY.4.2” could become the most infectious variant of the coronavirus since the pandemic began, indicated Balloux, Director of the Institute of Genetics at University College London.
Furthermore, the UK Health Security Agency report, released last Friday, stated that “a newly designated AY.4.2 sub-lineage of Delta is expanding in England.”
The document indicated that in the week of September 27, the last week for which complete sequencing data was available, AY.4.2 accounted for approximately 6% of sequenced coronavirus cases and is “on a growing trajectory.”
Experts value
“But we must be cautious at this time. The United Kingdom – he specified – is the only country in which it has taken off in this way and I would not rule out that its growth is due to a fortuitous demographic event,” said Balloux.
However, it is “likely” that the World Health Organization (WHO) classify it as “variant under investigation “So he would then assign it a letter from the Greek alphabet, Balloux said.
Even so, asked not to “panic”For although it could be “slightly more transmissible”, it will not be “something as disastrous as what we have previously experienced”.
Meanwhile, an official spokesman for the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, stressed today that the authorities follow “very closely” its evolution and assured that “we will not hesitate to take the necessary measures.”
For his part, the professor of clinical microbiology at the University of Cambridge, Ravi gupta, explained to ‘The Guardian’ that these mutations were not of particular concern. “A222V has been seen in other Delta lineages. It does not have a very large effect on the virus“, he pointed out.
Coronavirus in figures
Daily cases of coronavirus-19 in the UK are on the rise once again. The Saturday they reported 39,624 new Covid infections, the highest figure since the end of July.
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