The Delta Subvert is spreading to the UK

Posted on 10/19/2021 7:39 PMStudy time: 2 minutes

LHe said the British government, in the face of an increase in Covit-19 pollution, said on Tuesday that it was “closely monitoring” a new subtype that was spreading in the United Kingdom, which had not yet been established as contagious.

This “AY4.2” variant is a sub-variant of the highly contagious delta that first appeared in India, causing re-infection in late spring and early summer.

“We are closely monitoring this new form and we will not hesitate to take action if necessary,” a Downing Street spokeswoman said.

40,000 positive cases every day

The appearance of this new variant, despite the very strong epidemic of delta rejecting new strains, still raises fears of a larger transaction. The United Kingdom, which separates nearly 139,000 deaths from Covit-19, faces increasingly positive cases, now surpassing 40,000 every day, far more than others from Europe.

Some scientists attribute the current deterioration to restrictions currently in place, such as adolescents and young adults, weakened immunization of minors, very early immunosuppression or lifting in the UK in July.

But for Franசois Baloux, director of the Genetic Institute at UCL, the new variant is “not at the beginning of the recent increase in cases in the United Kingdom”. With its low frequency so far, he explains, “a 10% higher exchange would have only resulted in a lower number of additional cases.”

The originator of AY4.2 “would not be a situation comparable to the origin of the alpha and delta strains, they would have spread (50% or more) more than all the strains in circulation at the time,” he said.

The new variant AY4.2 is almost non-existent outside the UK, except for three cases in the US and a few more cases in Denmark, which have almost disappeared.

Work is underway to test its resistance to the vaccine.