NEW YORK: World Health Organization (WHO) officials said Monday that the novel coronavirus is circulating “at a much slower rate” than seasonal flu.
They said research was leading to a new, contagious strain of the virus in the UK that is reportedly much more contagious – but said a failure in a health warning may be to blame.
It came after health experts in Britain warned at the weekend that the mutated virus could be 70 per cent more susceptible than its original weight. This has led to dozens of countries in the EU and beyond banning British travelers. At the same time, UK authorities strengthened stay-at-home orders.
WHO health experts on Monday provided information on the movement responsible for the new snoring in the UK, several of which have been identified in South Africa.
Tedros CEO Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that while this strain is reported to be more contagious, there is no evidence to suggest it is more deadly. Keeping transmission rates under control is the key, he said, as the more the virus spreads, the greater its chance of getting around.
Common seasonal flu is so frequent that scientists have to develop new vaccines each year to protect the population against new strains. But epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO technical director for the group’s coronavirus response, said the new coronavirus variant does not appear to reduce the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines.
“That’s good news,” she said. “But again, there’s a lot of information coming out and a lot of research going on.”
She said scientists are studying three main areas of the new snoring in particular: its transmission rates, regardless of whether the symptoms it causes are greater or worse than the existing strains. already, and how antibodies treat infection with it.
All viruses move, but not all mutations cause viruses to become more contagious.
“SARS-CoV-2 (the correct name for the novel COVID-19-induced coronavirus) is circulating at a much slower rate than the flu,” said WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan .
“So far, even though we have seen a number of changes and mutations, none of them have significantly affected the susceptibility of the virus to any of the medicines, drugs or vaccines currently in use, and one hopes that this will continue as it is. ”
The average incidence of the new strain of the virus in the UK is estimated to be spread to 1.5 people, compared to 1.1 for the original strain.
Dr Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO health emergency program, said it was unclear whether the rise in the UK infection rate was due to genetic changes in the new version or simply to human behavior due to human failure. the public- health protocols.
Van Kerkhove confirmed that researchers are “trying to find out how much of that is related to the variance itself, as well as behavioral differences in individuals who have this variability. on infection. They are still working through that at the moment. “
Nearly 77 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been diagnosed worldwide since the outbreak began, and nearly 1.7 million people have died.
America’s leading expert on infectious diseases, Anthony Fauci, said the U.S. must “monitor” the new pressure. In an interview with CNN, he said he did not recommend to the government that it close its borders to Brits, saying that his advice was: “Follow the (new strain) carefully but don’t overdo it. ”