The highly contagious COVID-19 variant, which first emerged in the UK, has apparently re-evolved into a ‘worrying’ new mutation, researchers said.
Nearly a dozen cases have been identified that include a mutation known as E484K, which has already been identified in the South African and Brazilian variants, reports the BBC.
“The biggest mutation, which we call E484K, also occurred spontaneously in the new Kent tribe in parts of the country,” Calum Semple, an expert advising the British government, told BBC radio.
The extremely contagious mutation changes the shape of the vein protein of the virus – the part of the bug that makes it contagious.
Experts now fear that E484K has allowed the South African and Brazilian tribes to get past the natural antibodies of those who have already recovered after becoming infected in the first wave.
It also means the mutation could mean the strain is more resistant to antibody medicine or plasma from coronavirus survivors, helping both people fight the virus, experts said.
Dr. Julian Tang, a virologist at the University of Leicester, said the mutation for the British variant ‘is a worrying development, though not entirely unexpected’, the BBC reported.
He urged people to follow instructions in the UK to prevent the virus from continuing to mutate and spread.
“Otherwise, the virus can not only continue to spread, but can also develop it,” Tang said.
The mutated cases in the United Kingdom were first detected in the English county of Kent, southeast of London.
Public Health England said it had been seen in 11 out of 214,159 samples they had tested, reports the BBC.