New York Covid Variant Found In UK

New York Covid variant found in UK – PHE ‘monitoring situation closely’.

A NEW YORK Covid variant has been discovered in the UK, Public Health England confirms it is “monitoring the situation closely”. The US has so far recorded as many as 2,565 cases of the New York variant.

However, now the PHE has said the UK has also seen three cases of the variant. Meera Chand, PHE Incident Director for Covid, said: “Public Health England is aware of three UK cases of the B.1.526 lineage of SARS-CoV-2 that was first detected in New York.  None of these cases feature the E84K or S477N mutations that are present on some Variants of Concern. PHE is monitoring the situation closely. We are working with partners across the world to identify and mitigate the impact of variants as they emerge.”

Is it anything to worry about?

As immunity builds up in the population, all viruses mutate to try and survive and coronavirus is no different. SARS-Cov-2 infects humans via its spike protein, which allows the bug to get into the body’s cells.

The E484K mutation changes the shape of the spike protein, which can make jabs less effective. However, the mutation does not appear to render the vaccines useless.

Recent studies have shown both the Pfizer and AstraZeneca jabs do still offer a good level of protection against the South African and Brazilian variants, that carry the E484K mutation.

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