Scientists in Malaysia have found 45 people infected with the new strain of the novel Coronavirus -D614G. The new strain is believed to be ten times more infectious than the coronavirus, which has claimed lakhs of lives across the globe.
Scientists in Malaysia have found 45 people infected with the new strain of the novel Coronavirus -D614G. The new strain is believed to be ten times more infectious than the coronavirus, which has claimed lakhs of lives across the globe.
The news has been confirmed by Director General of Health Noor Hisham Abdullah in a Facebook post which said that D614G, a mutation of SARS-CoV-2 virus which causes Covid-19, has been detected in at least three of the 45 cases in a cluster that started from a restaurant owner returning from India's Tamil Nadu and violated his 14-day home quarantine. It has also been detected in another cluster case which started with returnees from the Philippines.
The D614G mutation was first detected in February and researchers indicate that the mutation is deemed to have given the virus some kind of biological edge enabling its global spread.
Two studies published in Cell by Dr. Korber and second study by WHO Collaborating Center in China, too gave similar outcomes that D164G, the dominant strain of SARS-CoV-2 seems to be 10-fold more infectious than the original Wuhan-1 strain.
Earlier is was speculated if we will need to develop separate vaccines for different variants. However, most of the vaccines in development are based on a different region of the spike so this should not have an impact on their development, according to TOI.