LONDON (Reuters) – England Public Health (PHE) said on Thursday that a new variant of the coronavirus was identified in the UK in two people who were recently in Antigua, adding that it shared some characteristics of others, but would not be classified as worrying for now.
The health authority said the variant, known as VUI-202103/01 (strain B.1.324.1), was designated a variant under investigation on March 4 after two cases were found in southeastern England in individuals who had traveled recently to Antigua.
“The variant contains the peak mutations E484K and N501Y, both generally associated with Variants of Concern (VOC), however, it does not have specific deletions that would lead to a designation as VOC,” said PHE in a statement.
The variants are mutant versions of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19, which has already killed more than 2.7 million people in the pandemic.
Although scientists say virus mutations are unavoidable, worrying variants of COVID-19, such as those first identified in southeastern England, South Africa and Brazil, present worrying changes that give the virus advantages, such as increased transmissibility or reducing the effectiveness of vaccines.
The E484K mutation of the spike protein was observed in South African and Brazilian variants and occurred spontaneously in the United Kingdom variant, and is associated with lower vaccine efficacy. The N501Y mutation is associated with high transmissibility.
PHE also said that four more cases of variant P.1, which was found for the first time in northern Brazil and has mutations E484K and N501Y, have been identified in England.
This brings the total number identified in Britain to ten, the PHE said, adding that they all had links to direct travel from Brazil or to a previously confirmed case that traveled to Brazil.
Reporting by Alistair Smout, edited by William James