New coronavirus mutation spreads faster than original strain, scientists say

• A new coronavirus mutation has been causing outbreaks to spread faster, scientists found.
• Professor Nick Loman explained that the new virus strain, which has now become the most dominant strain, forms clusters of infected cases faster than the original strain.
• The scientists assured, however, that the mutation does not cause more severe cases such as lengthier hospital stays or greater mortality rates.

Scientists have found that the new coronavirus mutation, which has been causing outbreaks to spread faster, has now become the most dominant strain of the virus.

The mutation, scientifically known as D614G, has reportedly been forming coronavirus case clusters more rapidly in the United Kingdom than the original virus strain.

University of Birmingham Professor Nick Loman, who is part of the COVID-19 Genomics Consortium, explained in BBC Radio 4’s “Today” program that the mutation can be described as a change in the “spike” protein that studs the virus like a crown.

This change can improve the virus’s ability to get into human cells and reproduce.

“We have been noticing in the UK and worldwide that this mutation has been increasing in frequency,” he continued.

After analyzing more than 40,000 genomes in the UK, a team of scientists found that the strain has increased “the infectivity of cells.”

Loman added, “The original virus out of Wuhan had the D-type, but the G-type has become much more dominant across the world, including the UK.”

The mutation has now become “the most dominant mutation — it’s about 75 percent of cases,” he continued.

Loman assured, however, that the mutation does not mark a deadly new phase of the coronavirus pandemic.

Aside from the faster spread, the new mutation is not believed to cause more severe cases, such as lengthier hospital stays or greater mortality rates, the Telegraph reported.

The mutation is also not expected to hinder the process of finding a vaccine for COVID-19.

“It’s a small impact, we think, and we’re not completely confident about that, but we found … that the viruses that contained the G-type of mutation seemed to form clusters of cases faster, which ended up being bigger than viruses with the D-mutation,” Loman clarified.

“We didn’t see any significant association with survival and the length of hospital stays with this mutation — we don’t think this mutation is important in changing virulence. The effect seems to be on transmissibility,” he continued.

Dr. Heidi J. Zapata, a Yale Medicine infectious disease specialist and immunologist, told CNET that there’s still no sufficient evidence to suggest that the virus is becoming more infectious or deadly.

“We simply know that certain variants have become more prominent, such as the D614G strain. However, currently, our evidence about D614G shows that it is not causing different clinical outcomes in humans,” Zapata said.

Source: New York Post