Two new Covid strains have been discovered in the UK
Health officials caution that two new strains of Covid have been discovered in the UK and may be resistant to the current vaccines.
- The BQ.1 variant has been found in 717 cases, and the XBB variant has been found in 18 cases.
- Both are immunologically evasive and may be immune to vaccines, according to experts.
- A “swarm” of these types, according to Biozentrum, might trigger a new winter wave.
- A virologist at the University of Warwick said that the UK was unaware of these new varieties.
- However, immunization continues to be the best defense against COVID-19.
Health experts have issued a warning about two new Covid-19 strains discovered in the UK that may be impervious to vaccinations.
In the entire nation, 717 cases of the BQ.1 variant and 18 cases of the XBB variant have been found.
Both variations are extremely highly evasive and may be impervious to immunizations, according to specialists.
More than half of the instances of the XBB variety detected globally have been found in Singapore, where there has been an increase in cases, therefore it is believed to be a contributing factor to the increase in infections there.
Both BQ.1 and VBB are descended from the extremely contagious Omicron variety, and experts have cautioned that a lack of testing could result in the failure to detect an increase in infections.
717 cases of the BQ.1 variety have been found nationwide, and 18 cases of the XBB variant.
Studies are being conducted, according to the UK Health and Security Agency (UKHSA), to evaluate the situation involving the new variations.
Before Christmas, a swarm of these Covid-19 variations might cause a significant new wave of infections across Europe, according to experts at the Biozentrum research laboratory at the University of Basel.
The present tendencies with the virus, according to Cornelius Roemer, a computational biologist with Biozentrum, are significantly different from what has transpired with it in the past.
According to him, Omicron was maybe the first variation to be immunologically evasive, which is why it led to such a significant increase in infections and a wave of Covid-19.
For the first time, he continued, “we now observe numerous lineages and variants arising concurrently that share a great number of mutations, and all manage to elude immunity quite successfully.”
The University of Warwick‘s Professor Lawrence Young, a virologist, expressed alarm last month that the UK was “blind” to new subvariants and their capacity to evade protection.
Concerns were expressed last month by Professor Lawrence Young, a virologist at the University of Warwick, that the UK was “blind” to new subvariants and their capacity to evade protection.
The fact that infections were rising with these new varieties, he claimed, “does suggest that we’re not out of the woods yet at all with this virus,” was the main cause for concern.
Professor Young continued, “Sequencing from PCR testing is the only way we can find variations or predict what’s coming, and that’s not happening nearly as much as it did a year ago.
Director of Clinical and Emerging Infection at UKHSA, Dr. Meera Chand, stated.
The emergence of novel SARS-CoV-2 mutations is envisaged. Both BQ.1 and XBB have not been identified as Variants of Concern, but UKHSA is still keeping a close eye on the situation.
Since vaccination is still the strongest defense against upcoming COVID-19 waves, it is crucial that everyone get all of the doses for which they are qualified as soon as possible.
