New Coronavirus strain ’10 times more infectious’ discovered in Indonesia

The president-elect of the International Society of Infectious Diseases in the US, Paul Tambyah, said there is evidence that the new strain coincides with a drop in death rates which suggests it is less lethal. He said it had been observed that most viruses tend to become less severe as they mutate. “Maybe that’s a good thing to have a virus that is more infectious but less deadly, it is in the virus’ interest to infect more people but not to kill them because a virus depends on the host for food and for shelter,” he said.