JAKARTA - British authorities have discovered the type of coronavirus that was first discovered in India as a variant of concern after the discovery of a cluster of infection cases in Britain.
Scientists believe the COVID-19 variant, known as B.1.617.2, is spreading faster than the original virus version. The native Indian variant, B.1.617, was detected in October but Public Health England (PHE) now categorizes three subtypes, each with a slightly different mutation.
Although B.1.617.2 appears to be as transmissible as the Kent variant that triggered most of the UK's second wave of COVID-19, there is no evidence that B.1.617.2 is resistant to the current vaccine.
Dr. Deepti Gurdasani, clinical epidemiologist and senior lecturer at the Queen Mary University of London said the B.1.617.2 strain could become the dominant strain in London in May if the number of infections continues to increase.
"With the current doubling rate (B1617.2) it could easily become dominant in London in late May or early June", he told The Guardian, as reported by The National News, Friday, May 7.
Other variants of concern include strains first identified in Kent, southeast England, as well as South Africa and Brazil.
The PHE document, dated May 5 and seen by The Guardian, says the continuing risk to public health of subtype B.1.617.2 variant is high.
PHE said an update on the number of cases due for release on Thursday was postponed due to processing issues. According to the latest data from PHE, there are 193 confirmed cases of the B1.617.1 variant, up 61 since April 21.
The first report on variant B.1.617.2 showed 202 cases, and the first report on variant B1617.3 showed five infections.
The strain is believed to have sparked a deadly wave of coronavirus in India, which on Friday reported a record infection on another day, with 414,188 confirmed cases in the past 24 hours. Additionally, India's Ministry of Health reported 3,915 deaths, bringing the country's total to 234,083.
Scientists say the medium-term threat from the virus has not disappeared, despite successful vaccine campaigns in developed countries.
Separately, Britain's chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty said the world would continue to record a significant number of deaths unless more efforts were made to vaccinate the vulnerable.
He said that while the coronavirus could become a chronic disease that was much milder in the long term, the new variants would continue to cause problems.
"In the medium term, the outlook still looks bleak around the world", he said at the Royal Society's online event on COVID-19 on Thursday.
"I will really repeat, until we get a situation where we have boosted immunity in the most vulnerable anywhere in the world, we will continue to see very significant morbidity and mortality from this virus", he said.
Meanwhile, UK Government COVID-19 adviser Professor Wendy Barclay added. There is a lot that needs to be done to bring the pandemic under control.
"We are not going to eradicate this virus. So far it has spread around the world and vaccines do not necessarily prevent transmission. I think we will live with the Sars-Cov-2 strain for a very long time", he said.
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