English health authority says 38 cases of new COVID variant found

LONDON: Health authorities in England have identified 38 cases of a new coronavirus variant which has a key mutation that is thought to reduce the effectiveness of vaccines, the government said on Tuesday.

“There is currently no evidence that this set of mutations causes more severe illness or increased transmissibility,” Professor Yvonne Doyle, Medical Director at Public Health England (PHE) said in a statement. PHE said the cases were dispersed across England.

The variant, known as B.1.525, has the E484K spike protein mutation, which is also present in the South African variant and is the key mutation found so far that could undermine the effectiveness of vaccines.

The B.1.525 variant has also been detected in Nigeria, Denmark and Canada, Public Health England said.

READ: WHO alerts six countries after Ebola outbreaks

Separately to be reported today, the World Health Organization has alerted six countries to watch out for potential Ebola cases after fresh outbreaks in Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo, a spokeswoman said on Tuesday.

Guinea declared a new Ebola outbreak on Sunday in the first resurgence of the disease there since the 2013-2016 outbreak, while Democratic Republic of Congo reported a resurgence of the virus on Feb 7.