LONDON (Reuters) – A new strain of COVID-19 identified in the UK could spread faster and urgent work is underway to confirm it does not cause a higher mortality rate, England Medical Director Chris Whitty said on Saturday.
“As announced on Monday, the United Kingdom has identified a new variant of Covid-19 by genomic surveillance of public health in England,” Whitty said in a statement.
“Following the rapid spread of the new variant, preliminary modeling data and the rapidly increasing incidence rate in the south-east, the Advisory Group on New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats (NERVTAG) now considers that the new strain may spread more rapidly. quick.”
Reported by Michael Holden, edited by William Maclean