New Corona variant found in five more countries

Spread the love

Read Time:1 Minute, 45 Second

According to WHO, the mutation from the UK is already circulating in Australia, Iceland, Italy, the Netherlands and Denmark. It is clearly more contagious, it said.

The new variant of the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus has been found in Australia, Iceland, Italy, the Netherlands and Denmark in addition to the United Kingdom. Apart from Denmark, these were isolated cases, World Health Organization (WHO) coronavirus expert Maria van Kerkhove reported Monday in Geneva.

The virus can be brought under control even in the new variant, WHO emergency coordinator Michael Ryan stressed. “The situation is not out of control,” he said. “But we have to work harder. The virus can be stopped.” Protective measures such as keeping your distance, avoiding direct contact and washing your hands are just the right ones to avoid infection as much as possible, even with the new strain, he said.

Higher R-value
According to initial findings by British scientists, the mutation discovered in the United Kingdom could be up to 70 percent more contagious than the previously known form. The R-value, which indicates how many other people an infected person can infect, is 1.5 instead of 1.1 for the new variant, Kerkhove said. The R-value for measles is between 12 and 18, Ryan said.

When proteins change on a virus, as they did here, it affects how well the virus can enter human cells, Ryan said. If it can penetrate more easily, the viral load – the amount of virus a person carries – can also increase, he said, leading to higher levels of infection.

In the United Kingdom, the new form of the virus is spreading rapidly, especially in London and southeast England. Numerous countries have stopped flights from the UK as a result.

According to the WHO, there is no evidence that people in whom the new variant has been detected have a more severe course of the disease than previously infected people. The virus variant that has emerged in South Africa has similar mutations, but is a different variant than the one detected in the UK.