Covid Mutation: Another UK variant causes concern

Another new Covid variant with potentially worrying mutations has been discovered in the UK.

Like strains found in South Africa and Brazil, it carries a mutation that can make Covid jabs less effective. Scientists say at least 32 cases of coronavirus have been caused by this variant.

It comes amid alarm over several new variants of Covid which have spread in the UK since the end of 2020. The three of most concern emerged in Kent (B1.1.7), South Africa (B.1.351) and Brazil (P.2).

The new variant, known as B.1.525, has been detected in 10 countries including Denmark (35 cases), the US (10), France (five), Spain (one) and Australia (two).

The latest addition, described by researchers at the University of Edinburgh, has similarities to the Kent strain, but with several additional mutations.

One of these is the E484K mutation, also found in the South African and Brazilian variants, and scientists believe it could make vaccines less effective.

It causes a change on the spike protein – found on the outside of the virus - that plays an important role in helping the virus to enter cells as well as the immune system's response to it.

Early studies have shown the E484K mutation is better able to hide from antibodies that kill the virus.

Vaccine companies have confirmed their jab works less efficiently - but still to some degree - on this mutation.

It is one of the seven new variants reported in the US, leading to Dr Anthony Fauci to plead with Americans not to "let your guard down."

More than 100 cases of B.1.525 have been identified globally in total, according to the University of Edinburgh report.

But the roots of the variant go back as far as late December in Nigeria, where 12 cases have now been found, reports thesun.co.uk.

The Edinburgh researchers did not describe if the new variant caused different symptoms, more severe disease or was more infectious.

"We don't yet know how well this [new] variant will spread, but if it is successful it can be presumed that immunity from any vaccine or previous infection will be blunted," Dr Simon Clarke, an associate professor of cellular microbiology at the University of Reading, said.

Meanwhile, UK's vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said yesterday Britain will provide Covid-19 vaccine certificates for its residents if they are required by other countries, although it is not planning to introduce them for use at home.

"Internationally, if other countries will require a vaccine certificate, then I think it's right that we facilitate it," Zahawi told the BBC in an interview.

'TRIED TO HACK' PFIZER

North Korean hackers tried to break into the computer systems of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer in a search for information on a coronavirus vaccine and treatment technology, South Korea's spy agency said yesterday, according to reports.

The impoverished, nuclear-armed North has been under self-imposed isolation since closing its borders in January last year to try to protect itself from the virus that first emerged in neighbouring China and has gone on to sweep the world, killing more than two million people.

Leader Kim Jong Un has repeatedly insisted that the country has had no coronavirus cases, although outside experts doubt those assertions.

Seoul's National Intelligence Service "briefed us that North Korea tried to obtain technology involving the Covid vaccine and treatment by using cyberwarfare to hack into Pfizer", MP Ha Tae-keung told reporters after a parliamentary hearing behind closed doors.

In South Africa, the government wants to return the one million Covid-19 vaccine doses it has received from Serum Institute of India, The Economic Times reported yesterday, a week after the country said it would put on hold use of AstraZeneca's shot in its vaccination program.

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said yesterday Malaysia will receive its first batch of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines over the weekend for a Covid-19 inoculation drive that is set to begin on February 26, adding that he will be the first to be vaccinated.

Australia's medical regulator granted provisional approval for AstraZeneca Plc's vaccine, bolstering a national inoculation programme it plans to begin rolling out next week.

A Dutch court yesterday told the government to immediately lift a nationwide coronavirus curfew that sparked the worst riots in the Netherlands for decades.

The government wrongly used emergency powers to bring in the first curfew since the Nazi occupation in World War II, a judge at The Hague district court ruled.