With the onset of the new strain of coronavirus, England and the entire world has entered a state of chaos and panic. Just when the news of the vaccine rollout raised a lot of hope amongst the people, the new coronavirus strain has surely challenged that hope and has triggered a yet another wave of anxiety.
While the scientists and medical researchers are continuously working towards establishing the source of the new variant, however, nothing has been confirmed as of now. The new variant of coronavirus has been named “VUI 202012/01”. It includes a genetic mutation in the “spike” protein that could be the cause of the immediate and easy spread of the virus amongst people.
Besides the 3 most common symptoms of COVID-19, i.e., fever, dry cough and loss of sense of smell and taste, some additional symptoms have been associated with the new strain of coronavirus:
- Fatigue
- Loss of appetite
- Headache
- Diarrhoea
- Mental Confusion
- Muscular Pain
The new strain will likely lead to higher levels of hospitalizations and deaths next year, a new study showed. The mutated variant appears to be as much as 70% more transmissible and, 56% more infectious than other circulating strains.
Major worldwide concerns have been raised over the effectiveness of the tests and vaccines that just started rolling out. India has suspended all flights to the UK as a temporary measure to prevent the spread. Countries including Japan, Australia, Denmark and Singapore have also announced the discovery of the strain. WHO has advised that it may need to evade some PCR tests to curb the current scenario at hand.
Europe’s Health Regulator has assured that the variant probably isn’t different enough from the earlier ones. Thus, they may not elude Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE’s shot. It has also been stated that vaccine roll-outs may need to be accelerated to contain the ongoing spread. There is thus a dire need to increase the rate to 2 million people a week from the current pace of 200,000.