LONDON (UK) – The UK variant of the coronavirus develops a new, concerning mutation in a small number of cases, which according to scientists said makes it similar to the South African and Brazilian variants. It could bring down the efficacy of vaccines.
The emergence of the mutation to the variant first discovered in Britain throws light on how complicated removing COVID-19 lockdown will be even once vaccines are rolled out.
Public Health England said 11 cases of the UK variant has been reported which feature the E484K mutation, mostly in south-west England.
The E484K mutation, which occurs on the spike protein of the virus, bears the same change as seen in the South African and Brazilian variants that have worried international concern.
a PHE spokesman said, “PHE is monitoring the situation closely and all necessary public health interventions are being undertaken, including enhanced contact tracing and control measures.”
Several laboratory studies have found that vaccines and antibody therapy have shown less signs of efficacy against the South African variant.
By contrast, early evidence showed that vaccines worked just as well against the UK variant, which originally did not have the E484K mutation.
Health minister Matt Hancock said it was premature to tell how far the variants has had an impact on vaccines, but mutations of concern had been reported in Bristol and Liverpool.
He told lawmakers, “We must continue to act with caution, not least because of the renewed challenges posed by new variants of the coronavirus.”
Calum Semple, part of a panel that advises the British government, told BBC radio that E484K was the “mutation of most concern”, and had “occurred spontaneously” in the UK variant.
While the name E484K, in layman’s terms, is according to how the map coordinates, the number 484 is the exact location of the mutation. The letter E is the amino acid that it was originally and the letter K is the amino acid that it has mutated to.
Concern over the South African variant, with its E484K mutation, has already prompted authorities in England to launch a door-to-door mass testing drive in areas where cases of the variant with no link to South Africa have surfaced, while mandatory quarantine in hotels for arrivals from South Africa is yet to be effective.
Jonathan Stoye, virologist at The Francis Crick Institute, “This report would seem to suggest that under conditions of very high levels of virus replication even the most stringent of border controls, although they may delay spread, are unlikely to prevent the appearance of new variants.”