Coronavirus super-infectious mutant strain “more likely to affect children,” study says

The highly infectious mutant strain of coronavirus found in Kent may be more likely to affect children, scientists have warned.

Modellers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine have found that the new strain of the virus is 56% more infectious.

Even if another national blockade were to be implemented, it would be “unlikely” that R would be reduced to a lower level, unless schools and universities were also closed, their study found.

But researchers do not believe the new strain is more deadly or causes any more severe disease, either in adults or in children.

The researchers said there was “some evidence that growth may be particularly marked in children.”

The new variant will lead to a wave of coronavirus cases and deaths that will peak in the spring of 2021 for London, south-east and east of England, they said.

They said the cases and deaths will peak in the summer of 2021 for the rest of the country.

The schools were to return on January 4, but Education Secretary Gavin Williamson ordered a week of testing, and most students will return on January 11.

Only GCSE and A-level students, vulnerable children and children of critical workers will return on time.

Coronavirus is the most common among high school students, according to separate figures from the Office for National Statistics.

Those from years 7 to year 11 have the highest infection rates in the entire population.

Scientists hope to learn much more in the next two weeks about how quickly the variant is spreading among children, said Professor Neil Ferguson, an epidemiologist at Imperial College London and a member of NERVTAG’s No10 advisory group.

Children presented with pandemics throughout the coronavirus with far fewer cases than in other respiratory diseases, including influenza.

The main theory for this is due to the way the coronavirus enters human cells, through a receptor called ACE2 that is found on many cells in the upper respiratory tract.

As a result, Professor Wendy Barclay of Imperial College London and a member of NERVTAG explained that this made adults “easy targets” compared to children.

This is because the amount of ACE2 expressed by a person increases naturally and constantly over time, with young children having very little.

“I think we need to pay attention to what we say about children’s issues. We are not saying that this is a virus that specifically attacks children or is more specific in its ability to infect children, she said.

But we know that SARS-CoV-2, as it appeared as a virus, was not as effective in infecting children as it was in adults.

The previous virus had more difficulty binding ACE2 and penetrating cells, and therefore adults, who have abundant ACE2 in their nose and throat, were easy targets and children were difficult to infect.

“The newer virus makes this easier, and children are therefore just as susceptible to this virus as adults.

“Given their mixing patterns, you would expect to see more children infected.

“Not because the virus specifically targets children, but because it is now less inhibited.”

Professor Ferguson added that if this hypothesis proves to be true, it could explain a “significant proportion” of the increase in transmission.

Speaking at a virtual media briefing hosted by the Science Media Center, he said: “There is an indication that there is a greater tendency to infect children.

“That may explain some of the differences, but we haven’t established any causation.”

The new strain of the virus, which experts fear is more contagious, has prompted more than 50 countries to impose travel restrictions in the UK, where it first appeared.

But cases of the new variant were still reported worldwide: on Friday, Japan confirmed five infections in passengers in the UK, while cases were also reported in Denmark, Lebanon, Germany, Australia and the Netherlands.

South Africa detected a similar mutation in some infected people, but on Friday denied British claims that its strain was more infectious or dangerous than the one from the UK.