According to the study, a super infectious mutant strain of coronavirus “affects children more”

Scientists have warned that the highly infectious mutant strain of coronavirus found in Kent can affect children.

Modellers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found that the new strain of the virus is 56% more infectious.

Even if another national closure were implemented, it would be “unlikely” to reduce the R to below a feature that schools and universities would also be closed, according to their study.

But researchers do not believe the new strain will be more deadly or cause any more serious illness in either adults or children.

The researchers said there is “some evidence that the increase may be particularly noticeable in children.”

The new variant will lead to a wave of coronavirus cases and deaths that will peak in the spring of 2021 in London, south-east and east England, they said.

They said cases and deaths will peak in the summer of 2021 for the rest of the country.

Schools were due back on Jan. 4, but Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has ordered a week of testing and most students will return on Jan. 11.

Only GCSE and A level students, vulnerable children and children of critical workers will return on time.

According to separate figures from the Office for National Statistics, coronavirus is the most widespread among high school students.

Those in year 7 to year 11 are experiencing the highest infection rates in the entire population.

Scientists hope to learn much more over the next two weeks about how quickly the variant is spreading among children, said Professor Neil Ferguson, an epidemiologist at Imperial College London and a member of the No10 NERVTAG advisory group.

Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, children have accounted for far fewer cases than in other respiratory illnesses, including the flu.

The main theory of this is due to how the coronavirus enters human cells, through a receptor called ACE2 that is found in many cells of the upper respiratory tract.

As a result, Professor Wendy Barclay of Imperial College London and a member of NERVTAG explained that this made adults “easy targets” compared to children.

This is because the amount of ACE2 that a person naturally and steadily expresses increases over time, and young children have very little of it.

‘I think on the subject of children we have to be careful with what we say. We are not saying that it is a virus that specifically attacks children or that it is more specific in its ability to infect children, ”he said.

But we know that SARS-CoV-2, as it emerged as a virus, was not as effective at infecting children as adults.

“The previous virus had more difficulty binding ACE2 and entering cells and therefore adults, who have abundant ACE2 in their nose and throat, were the easy targets and children were difficult to infect.

“The latest virus makes it easier and therefore children are just as susceptible to this virus as adults.

Given their mixing patterns, more children are expected to be infected.

“It’s not because the virus is specifically targeted at children, it’s now less inhibited.”

Professor Ferguson added that if this hypothesis is found to be true, it may explain a “significant proportion” of the increase in transmission.

At a news conference on virtual media hosted by the Science Media Center, he said: “There is one clue that is more likely to infect children.

“That may explain some of the differences, but we haven’t established any kind of causation.”

The new strain of the virus, which experts fear is more contagious, caused more than 50 countries to impose travel restrictions in the UK, where it first emerged.

But cases of the new variant have yet to be reported worldwide: on Friday, Japan confirmed five infections in UK passengers, while cases were also reported in Denmark, Lebanon, Germany, Australia and the Netherlands.

South Africa has detected a similar mutation in some infected people, but on Friday denied British claims that its strain was more infectious or dangerous than the one that originated in the UK.