The New Year is coming to us with some anxious news. This week, reports from the UK suggested the country spotted a new variant of the coronavirus. Here’s all you need to know (to worry about).
There is a new virus in town. The UK has just reported the outbreak of a new variant of the Coronavirus. The news has come at a time the country has introduced a vaccine to fight the incumbent pandemic, Covid-19. Hence, for obvious reasons, the news has triggered panic among healthcare workers, scientists, policymakers and the public at large, not only in the UK but across the globe as well. Is the new variant of the coronavirus more dangerous than the novel coronavirus? Will the authorized vaccines be effective towards the new avatar?
British officials say the variant is the reason behind the recent increase in the number of Covid-19 cases in England. The new variant is referred to as SARS-CoV-2 VUI 202012/01 (Variant Under Investigation, the year 2020, month 12, variant 01). The scientists identified it through a process called viral genomic sequencing, by Covid-19 Genomics UK (CUG-UK), a consortium that analyses genome sequencing data from the UK.
Now, the scary part. Initial analysis shows the new variant may spread more readily among people. Laboratory investigations are on, to figure out how the virus behaves and how the new mutation or genetic change functions. Scientists are also looking forward to knowing if this variant has any changes in the severity symptoms, antibody response and vaccine efficacy.
To avoid the spread of the new variant, Britain is undergoing Tier-4 lockdown and most of the other countries closed their borders and induced travel restrictions.
But what exactly are the new features of the new virus?
We’ll get to that in a bit. But first, let’s see how it came to be. Scientists say the new variant is the result of a mutation of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. This is not surprising. The mutation is a part of the virus’ life cycle. That’s part of evolution. For starters, ‘mutation’ refers to the change in the genetic sequence of the virus. It happens while the virus is busy making copies of itself. The mutation brings in changes in the behaviour and the structure of the virus. As a result, it can be more contagious, neutral or mild in infection than the previous variant.
As of now, the new variant transmits more easily but there is no evidence that it is more likely to cause severe disease or mortality. The variant is defined by the presence of a range of 14 mutations resulting in amino acid changes and three deletions. One of these mutations is ‘N501Y’, in the area of the spike protein of the virus. This area has prior importance than any other regions of the coronavirus genome as it is the portion that gets bound to a human protein to initiate the process of infection. So the changes in this portion can possibly alter the nature of coronavirus.
Now, data on the latest spread
Public health officials in the UK say the new variant was first seen in mid-September in London and Kent. It became a dominant variant in London by December. As on 13 December, there were 1,108 Covid cases with the new variant in the UK, in people under the age of 60. The variant showed a more than three-fold increase in the 14-day case notification rate (basically means the number of cases notified divided by the number of cases estimated) from epidemiological week 41 to week 50 (5 October to 13 December 2020). Many other countries have spotted the new virus. They include Denmark, Italy, Australia, Iceland and the Netherlands. Scientists say a similar version of the virus is present in South Africa, which shares one of the mutations seen in UK virus.
Support by the WHO
The World Health Organization has declared support to the nations infected by the new variant. The succour includes the assessment of risks, recommendations on virological studies, sequencing and vaccination, guidance on measures and risk communication. The WHO has also advised all the countries to increase the sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 viruses and to share sequence data internationally and report if the same mutations are found.
Further laboratory investigations are needed to understand the implications of the new variant. But these investigations are complex and need more time. Meanwhile, the WHO urged the countries to remind their societies and health workers to continue all the known social (distancing) measures.
Is India ready to tackle the new variant?
India is yet to spot the new variant. Still, as the first step towards precaution, the country has suspended flights from the UK temporarily. The Ministry of Health issued Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for Epidemiological Surveillance and Response in the context of the new variant. The government says it will conduct genome sequencing of all Covid-19 positive passengers arriving from the UK to determine whether they have been infected by the new strain of the virus found there.
If the genomic sequencing indicates the presence of a new variant of SARS-CoV-2, then the patient will be kept in a separate isolation unit and will be treated as per the clinical protocol. Those who found negative on testing with RT-PCR at the airport would be advised quarantine at home. International travellers who arrived in India last month will be contacted by the District Surveillance Officers and will be monitored in the community.
The CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, New Delhi; CSIR- Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad; DBT- Institute of Life Sciences, Bhubaneswar; DBT-InStem-NCBS, Bangalore; DBT-National Institute of Biomedical Genomics (NIBMG), Kalyani, West Bengal; and ICMR- National Institute of Virology, Pune are the laboratories that the government has identified to perform genome sequencing.
Did mutation occur before?
Mutation in coronavirus has occurred in the past also. The coronavirus seen in different parts of the world is not the same as the one detected in Wuhan, China by end-2019. In February 2020, D614G mutation emerged in Europe and became a globally dominant form of the virus. Another mutation, A222V also spread in Europe and reached Spain. Today, the WHO suspects the presence of a new variant in other countries. WHO’s chief Scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan says she suspects that as more countries look at their data, they might find this variant or a related variant, might already be there. She adds that there have been mutations in the past that become the dominant variant now.
So if the countries go for whole-genome sequencing, they may be able to find a similar one. The WHO encourages countries to conduct genome sequencing as it helps to study the new variant as soon as possible and can be one of the important ways to develop an effective vaccine if necessary.
Will the new variant result in vaccine inefficacy?
Pfizer and Moderna, two vaccines that got authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in December. As the core region of the coronavirus is the spike protein, most of the vaccines are designed to create antibodies targeting the spike protein. But by considering the nature of the virus that they might undergo mutation; most of the vaccines target multiple regions on the spike protein.
In sum, as things stand now, the prediction about vaccine inefficacy is irrelevant. We need further investigations to get a clear idea.
Which means, we have good reasons to worry and continue being vigilant.
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