{"id":74010,"date":"2020-12-22T18:29:27","date_gmt":"2020-12-22T12:59:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=74010"},"modified":"2021-03-05T12:34:46","modified_gmt":"2021-03-05T07:04:46","slug":"mutated-covid-19-strain-of-uk-spreads-faster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/mutated-covid-19-strain-of-uk-spreads-faster\/","title":{"rendered":"Mutated\u2019 Covid-19 strain of UK spreads faster"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Context-<\/strong>\u00a0New mutated COVID-19 strain discovered in the United Kingdom underlines the need for adherence to Non-pharmaceutical interventions.<\/p>\n<p><strong>More in news-<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A new variant\u00a0of the pandemic SARS-CoV-2\u00a0coronavirus\u00a0is spreading rapidly in Britain and prompting high levels of concern.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Precautionary measures taken by other countries-<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The United Kingdom stood\u00a0shut off from the rest of Europe\u00a0after several nations decided to close borders over fears of the new coronavirus strain.<\/li>\n<li>India too has joined over two dozen countries in banning inbound travel from the UK.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What is this new strain of coronavirus?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Covid-19 mutant strain-<\/strong>\u00a0It has been named VUI-202012\/01 and is defined by a set of 23 changes or mutations.\u00a0Among the 23 mutations, the two of which are particularly worrisome.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>N501Y<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Has previously been shown to increase how tightly the protein binds to the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 receptor, its entry point into human cells.<\/li>\n<li><strong>69-70del<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 leads to the loss of two amino acids in the spike protein and has been found in viruses that eluded the immune response in some immune compromised patients.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>Concern with new strain-<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>It is about 70% more transmissible-\u00a0<\/strong>The variant has the potential to increase by over 0.4 the number of people a person can infect.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Mutations, or genetic changes, arise naturally in all viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, as they replicate and circulate among humans.\u00a0However, these changes, can lead to a quicker spread of Covid-19 between people.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Will vaccines work against this new strain of virus?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>According to scientists, Vaccines will be equally effective despite the mutation. So there is no reason to panic.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>This is because vaccines are designed to create antibodies targeting the spike protein and there is also the T-cell immunity that would come into play to clear the virus.<\/li>\n<li>However, as the virus accumulates more changes, vaccines might require little tweaking.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What needs to be done?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The emergence of the new variant underlines the compulsion to undertake surveillance following vaccination to track vaccine effectiveness and to look for the appearance of vaccine escape mutants.<\/li>\n<li>Non-pharmaceutical interventions, including quarantine and social distancing have significantly helped in curbing the transmission of coronavirus and should be followed strictly.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Context-\u00a0New mutated COVID-19 strain discovered in the United Kingdom underlines the need for adherence to Non-pharmaceutical interventions. More in news- A new variant\u00a0of the pandemic SARS-CoV-2\u00a0coronavirus\u00a0is spreading rapidly in Britain and prompting high levels of concern. Precautionary measures taken by other countries- The United Kingdom stood\u00a0shut off from the rest of Europe\u00a0after several nations decided&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/mutated-covid-19-strain-of-uk-spreads-faster\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Mutated\u2019 Covid-19 strain of UK spreads faster<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":74020,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,1351,1310,9],"tags":[1289,1456],"class_list":["post-74010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-daily-news","category-daily-news-updates","category-public","tag-soc_0","tag-soc_01","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Mutated-Covid-19-strain-of-UK-spreads-faster.jpg?fit=1280%2C720&ssl=1","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":1700781970,"cached_date":1704618210},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}