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A new Delta variant of the coronavirus is slowly spreading in the UK. “Delta Plus” is responsible for about ten percent of all Covid 19 cases, according to recent analysis – whether it is more contagious than the original Delta variant is still unclear.
Delta Plus is called by its scientifically correct name AY.4.2, the subvariant was first detected in India and is a descendant of the Delta variant (B.1.167.2) that has dominated for many months. It differs from it by two mutations in the spike protein, which the virus uses to enter somatic cells. Outside the UK, AY.4.2. is still extremely rare, but in the Kingdom it may have contributed to the rise in infection numbers in recent days. According to recent analyses by the UK’s Wellcome Sanger Institute, it accounts for ten percent of all covid cases.
So far, however, there is no evidence that AY.4.2 is significantly more transmissible, the BBC reports. However, Francois Balloux, director of the Genetics Institute at University College London, believes a ten percent higher transmission rate is likely, as he detailed on Twitter.
— source: science.ORF.at/picture: pixabay.com
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