UK Braces for Increasing COVID-19 Cases Caused by Fast-Spreading Coronavirus Variant

After being a cataclysmic year for global health and economy, it seemed 2020 would end on a positive note with emergency use approvals for COVID-19 vaccines and the commencement of nationwide vaccination programs. However, just when things started to look up, the UK has reported a new, “rapidly spreading” coronavirus mutant strain called VUI-202012/01.

“As announced on Monday, the UK has identified a new variant of COVID-19 through Public Health England’s genomic surveillance,” said England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said in a statement.

Health officials linked the variant to the rapid rise of infections in parts of the country including the capital. Officials said the new variant emerged sometime in mid-September and caused about 28% of the cases in London and the South-East and slightly lower in the East of England by mid-November.

Tier 4 Lockdown

In light of this development, on Saturday (December 19th), UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson imposed a Tier 4 lockdown in the affected areas. The measure was taken to cope with the spread of the variant, which could potentially skyrocket during the upcoming festive season.

Earlier, Johnson had promised relaxation in lockdown measures over Christmas. A few days ago, he said it would be “inhuman” to ask people to cancel their Christmas plans. However, the new tier 4 restrictions prevent the mixing of households, effectively canceling the originally planned five-day relaxation of socializing rules that would have allowed up to three households to meet in “Christmas bubbles”. Besides the closing of non-essential shops, leisure venues, and hairdressers, residents of tier 4 areas are restricted from traveling abroad or staying away from home overnight.

“Given the early evidence we have on this new variant of the virus, the potential risk it poses, it is with a very heavy heart I must tell you we cannot continue with Christmas as planned,” Johnson told a news conference.

On Sunday, several European countries, including Germany, France, Italy, Ireland, Belgium, and the Netherlands decided to halt flights from the UK due to the new health risk.

Rapidly Spreading Variant

Viruses are well known to mutate and evolve to improve their chances of survival. Especially, RNA viruses like SARS-CoV-2 have high mutation rates. In fact, since the advent of the pandemic, the SARS-CoV-2 genome has acquired several thousands of mutations.

However, the biggest concern now is to find out whether the COVID-19 vaccines can protect from the VUI-202012/01 variant. Early data have suggested that the new variant is up to 70 percent more transmissible than the original strain.

“As a result of the rapid spread of the new variant, preliminary modeling data, and rapidly rising incidence rates in the South East, the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG) now consider that the new strain can spread more quickly,” said Chris Whitty “We have alerted the World Health Organisation and are continuing to analyze the available data to improve our understanding.”

At present, scientists still expect the COVID-19 vaccines to be effective against the variant and there is no evidence to suggest otherwise. Nevertheless, experiments are already underway to confirm the same. Scientists at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research have commenced the investigation of the variant genome using computer analysis.

References

1. https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-britain-christmas/pm-johnson-says-plans-for-christmas-must-change-as-covid-cases-rise-idUSKBN28T0PJ
2. https://www.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-britain-strain/new-covid-19-strain-spreads-more-quickly-uk-medical-chief-says-idUSL8N2FQ1CK
3. https://www.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-britain-variant/new-coronavirus-strain-spreading-in-uk-has-key-mutations-scientists-say-idINKBN28P158
4. https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-britain-vaccines/vaccines-should-work-against-new-covid-variant-uk-science-adviser-idUSKBN28T0QD

Author

Rajaneesh K. Gopinath