Dozens of countries have banned travel from the UK in an effort to contain a new variant of Covid-19 first released in England.
In a statement issued on Saturday, the Japanese foreign ministry said the country will ban the entry of foreign nationals into the country from Monday to the end of January after several cases of Covid-19 variant were registered in the country.
The new mutation is called VUI-202012/01, the first “Variant Under Investigation” in the UK in December 2020. Although scientists are looking for more information about the variant, its impact is already noticeable, with dozens of countries which impose restrictions on travelers from the United Kingdom.
Here’s what we know so far about the Covid-19 variant:
What is a variant and why do officials care about it? A variant occurs when the genetic structure of a virus changes. All viruses mutate over time and new variants are common, including the new coronavirus.
Like other variants, it has a genetic fingerprint that makes it easy to trace, and is now widespread in the south-east of England. This alone does not necessarily mean that a variant is more contagious or dangerous.
But scientists who advised the UK government have estimated that this variant could be up to 70% more effective at spreading than others. Peter Horby, chairman of the advisory group for new and emerging respiratory virus threats (NERVTAG), said Monday that experts “now have a lot of confidence that this variant has a transmission advantage” over other variants.
The World Health Organization said Tuesday that changes to the variant include 14 key mutations and that some of them “may influence the transmissibility of the virus in humans,” although it added that more laboratory research was needed. .
Where did the variant originate from and how was it taken? The new variant is believed to have originated in the south-east of England, according to the WHO. Public Health England (PHE) says back-tracking, through genetic testing, suggests the variant first emerged in England in September. It then circulated at very low levels until mid-November.
Chris Whitty, the English chief medical officer, said on Saturday that the variant was responsible for 60% of new infections in London, which almost doubled just last week.
Several experts have also suggested that this new variant could have been amplified due to a supercharger event, meaning that the current increase in cases could also have been caused by human behavior.
Is the new variant more deadly? According to Whitty and the WHO, there is no evidence to suggest that the new variant is more deadly, although it is too early to tell.
Several experts have noted that in some cases, virus mutations that increase transmissibility are accompanied by a decrease in virulence and mortality rates.
“As viruses are transmitted, those can be selected that allow for increased virological ‘success’, which changes the properties of the virus over time. This usually leads to more transmission and less virulence,” said Martin Hibberd. professor of emerging infectious diseases at told the SMC the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (London).
Learn more about the UK coronavirus variant here.