The UK government confirmed on Tuesday (19) that it “follows very closely” the emergence of a “descendant” of the delta variant of the new coronavirus, which can be between 10% and 15% more contagious, noting that delta it’s already twice as contagious as the original Sars-CoV-2.
In an interview with the Financial Times, experts called this “offspring” AY.4.2 and warned that its frequency has increased in the UK, where it may account for 10% of Covid-19 cases at the moment.
The prevalence of AY.4.2 has been increasing rapidly, but not as much as the first delta, having expanded from India to British territory earlier in the year.
This “new strain of Sars-CoV-2” is “descendant” of the delta variant (B.1.167.2) and “has two characteristic mutations” in the S protein, Y145H and A222V, which may offer virus survival advantages, François Balloux, one of the two experts cited by the Financial Times, told the Science Media Center.
If preliminary tests are confirmed, AY.4.2 could become the most infectious variant of the coronavirus since the pandemic began, said Balloux, director of the Institute of Genetics at University College London.
“But we have to be careful at this stage. The United Kingdom is the only country where it has developed in this way and I still wouldn’t exclude that its growth is due to a fortuitous demographic event”, he commented.
However, it is “likely” that the World Health Organization (WHO) would classify it as a “variant under investigation”, which would give it a letter of the Greek alphabet, said Balloux, who asked not to panic, because even if it were “ slightly more transmissible”, won’t be “as disastrous as what we’ve experienced before”.
“This is not a situation comparable to the emergence of alpha and delta (variants), which were much more transmissible (50% or more) than any strain in circulation at the time. Here, we are dealing with a small potential increase in transmissibility that would not have a comparable impact on the pandemic,” added Balloux to the Science Media Centre.
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