Public Health England (PHE) said today that a 2019 strain of coronavirus disease (Chinese communist virus, COVID-19) first identified in India will be classified as a “variant of concern” because scientists have found that it spreads more rapidly than the original variant.
The BBC reported earlier that scientists recommended that the variant of the virus, B.1.617.2, which was first identified in India, be classified as a “variant of concern,” saying that the number of confirmed cases of the variant in the United Kingdom last week was 202 and has now increased to more than 500. The number of confirmed cases of this variant in the United Kingdom last week was 202 and has now increased to more than 500.
Jeff Barrett, director of the 2019 Coronavirus Disease Genome Project at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, said the large number of confirmed cases of B.1.617.2 in the U.K. and around the world is “consistent with this variant spreading faster than the earlier virus species last year. is consistent with a faster rate of transmission.”
Barrett said, “The infectivity (of B.1.617.2) may not be comparable to the B.117 Kent variant virus that is pandemic within the United Kingdom.” He was referring to the strain of the virus found in Kent, southeast England, which caused the second wave of the outbreak in the United Kingdom.
The original variant of B.1.617.2, B.1.617, was first seen in October last year, but was classified by Public Health England as three different subtypes, which have slightly different variants.
Other suspected variants of the virus include the Kent variant, as well as variants originating in South Africa and Brazil. Barrett also said that actual studies on the effectiveness of existing vaccines against these variants have yielded reassuring and reliable evidence that “vaccines continue to be effective.
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