Scientists monitoring new Covid Delta variant with ‘horrific spike profile’

A virologist at Imperial College London has warned that a new Covid variant with a “horrific spike profile” could be of “real concern”.

Experts said the variant carries an “extremely high number” of mutations and may cause new waves of the virus by evading the body’s defences, reported The Guardian.

Although there have been only ten confirmed cases in three countries, it is causing concern because its 32 mutations may help the virus negate immunity.

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The mutations in the B.1.1.529 variant are in its spike protein, “the part of the virus that most vaccines use to prime the immune system against Covid”, said the newspaper. Mutations in the spike protein can make it harder for immune cells to attack the pathogen, weakening the effectiveness of vaccines.

Writing on a genome-sharing website, Dr Tom Peacock, a virologist at Imperial College London, said that the variant’s “incredibly high amount of spike mutations suggest this could be of real concern”.

Taking to Twitter, he added that the variant “very, very much should be monitored due to that horrific spike profile”, but acknowledged that it could turn out to be an “odd cluster” that is not very transmissible. “I hope that’s the case,” he wrote.

Ravi Gupta, a professor of clinical microbiology at Cambridge University, said that two of the mutations on B.1.1.529 increased infectivity and reduced antibody recognition, adding that “it does certainly look a significant concern”.

However, Professor Francois Balloux, of the UCL Genetics Institute, said: “It is difficult to predict how transmissible it may be at this stage”, adding “there is no reason to get overly concerned unless it starts going up in frequency in the near future”.

The first cases of the variant were noted in Botswana on 11 November, and it was recorded in South Africa three days later. A case found in Hong Kong was in a man who had returned from a trip to South Africa.

In South Africa, the number of confirmed general cases of Covid-19 surged from 312 on Monday to more than 860 on Tuesday, noted the i, but scientists say it is too soon to tell whether there is a link with the new “super variant”.

Dr Meera Chand, the Covid-19 incident director at the UK Health Security Agency, said: “As it is in the nature of viruses to mutate often and at random, it is not unusual for small numbers of cases to arise featuring new sets of mutations.”

There are currently no known cases of the variant in the UK and The Mirror reminded readers that coronavirus variants are identified all the time and “often will not spread beyond a handful of cases”.