It was around a few days back that scientists in the United Kingdom detected a new mutated variant of coronavirus that has a 70 percent higher contraction rate than the original virus that originated in Wuhan, China. Later, UK government sources revealed that children are at a higher risk of contracting this mutated strain.
Mutated strain spreading like wildfire
According to the latest reports, this highly transmissible mutant variant of coronavirus has been documented in several European countries, and also in Canada, Japan, Australia, and Lebanon. The uncontrollable spread of the mutated coronavirus strain has literally surprised medical experts, as most of the countries had cut travel ties with the United Kingdom soon after the highly infectious virus mutant was discovered.
The mutated virus is spreading across the world at a time when a wave of hope is sweeping some countries as vaccination programs are being rolled out steadily. The mutated strain has also been discovered in countries like France, Denmark, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany, and Italy.
Even though the United States has not reported any case of this mutated strain, experts believe that the new variant could already be there in the country, and it is going unnoticed due to the nation's very low rate of genetic sequencing of the virus to check for such changes. Amid all these new developments, the United States continues to top the coronavirus chaos chart with more than 19 million positive cases and over 3,30,000 deaths.
Is the new coronavirus mutant dangerous for children?
It was British experts who initially revealed that this mutated strain will spread quickly among children. Professor Neil Ferguson, an epidemiologist of Imperial College London and member of No10's advisory group NERVTAG revealed that the recent opening of schools might be one of the reasons that triggered the drastic spread of this mutant COVID-19 variant among children.
"here is a hint that it is has a higher propensity to infect children. That may perhaps explain some of the differences but we haven't established any sort of causality," said Ferguson, during a virtual media briefing hosted by the Science Media Centre.
