United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday announced a surprise lockdown in London and other parts of the country after a new strain of COVID named Sars-CoV-2 virus was detected. However, the variant of this strain is not new.
The virus strain was later found to be the reason for the accelerated growth in COVID cases in the country. The new strain is 70% more infectious than the other virus, according to the experts. It is believed that almost 60% of London’s new cases are driven by this strain alone.
Sars-CoV-2 was already detected in September. In November, a quarter of cases in London were from the new strain.
Here is everything you need to know about the new strand-
- There have been concerns regarding the new strain as it suggestively breeds faster and rapidly replace other versions of the virus, according to the experts
- The variant has been found across the UK and is heavily concentrated in London, South East and Eastern England. Other countries such as Denmark, the Netherlands and Australia have found cases with the new strain although, the people who carried the strain had a history of UK travel.
- There is no solid evidence that suggests that the new strain is deadlier, however, the cases are being monitored. Meanwhile, it has already started to become a nuisance for the medical sector due to the acceleration in COVID cases which will translate into hyper medicare.
- The positive part is that the vaccines developed for COVID have been working successfully on the new strand as well, at least for now.
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