LONDON (Reuters) – A new strain of coronavirus is spreading fast in Britain carrying mutations that could make children less likely to be infected with adults – unlikely to previous series, scientists said Monday.
Informing reporters of the latest findings, scientists from the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Risk Advisory Group (NERVTAG) which monitors the variant said it has quickly become mainstream in the south of Britain, and could do the same across the country. .
“We now have full confidence that this difference has a spreading advantage over other viral changes currently in the UK,” said Peter Horby, professor of emerging infectious diseases at Oxford University and chairman of NERVTAG.
“It is advertised as having a higher ability to catch children,” said Neil Ferguson, a professor and epidemiologist of infectious disease at Imperial College London and also a member of NERVTAG.
“We have not established any reason for that, but we will see it in the data,” said Ferguson. “We need to collect more data to see how it behaves. ”
The variable version of SARS-CoV-2, which scientists say is up to 70% more mobile than previous series in the UK, has closed some countries to Britain’s borders and has covered large areas of the country. pushing to real constraints over the Christmas period.
Wendy Barclay, another NERVTAG professor and expert in virology at Imperial, said there are changes in the way it enters human cells, which could mean “that children, probably as vulnerable to this virus as adults ”.
“So, with their mixing patterns, you would expect more children to be infected,” Barclay said.