The mutated strain of COVID-19, which was discovered in the British region of Kent, is likely to “sweep the world,” a top British scientist has claimed.
While speaking to BBC, Sharon Peacock, director of the COVID-19 Genomics UK consortium said that the world might have to battle against coronavirus for at least a decade.
“Once we get on top of (the virus) or it mutates itself out of being virulent — causing disease — then we can stop worrying about it. But I think, looking in the future, we’re going to be doing this for years. We’re still going to be doing this 10 years down the line, in my view,” Peacock said as per a report by Reuters.
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The mutated variant was discovered in Kent in September last year and has spread to over 70 countries, including India by now. The New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group termed the mutation as a ‘Variant of Concern’.
“What’s concerning about this is that the 1.1.7 variant that we have had circulating for some weeks and months is beginning to mutate again and get new mutations which could affect the way that we handle the virus in terms of immunity and effectiveness of vaccines,” Peacock said.
Notably, currently, there are three major variants of COVID-19 – the Kent variant, the Brazilian variant, and the South African Variant.