In Israel, the first infection with a new mutation of the Delta strain of the coronavirus – AY.4.2, which is called Delta Plus, was discovered. Previously, a small number of cases were reported in the United States and Denmark, with the highest in Britain.
The first infected in Israel is an underage guy who returned from abroad, the press service of the country’s Ministry of Health reports. Twitter The 20th of October.
From which country he returned, the message is not specified. However, according to the TV channel i24, he returned from Moldova. Now the child is in isolation, after arrival he has not contacted anyone.
“AY4.2 variant has been identified in Israel, which has been found in several European countries,” the ministry said.
Previously British authorities saidthat AY.4.2 was found in the country. – 6% of all cases of coronavirus are attributed to a new mutation. Officials said they are monitoring the situation with the spread of the mutation and are ready to take action if necessary. At the same time, the Delta strain is dominant in Britain.
François Ballou, Director of the Institute of Genetics, University of London, on his page at Twitter stated that the AY4.2 mutation may be 10% more infectious, however it is not comparable to the Alpha and Delta strains.
He noted that the emergence of AY4.2 did not affect the outbreak in the country, since the number of people infected with the mutation is small.
“Britain is the only country in which AY.4.2 has achieved such success. Still, I do not exclude that its growth is accidental,” said Ballou.
There is increasing twitter chatter about a new SARS-CoV-2 lineage termed AY.4.2, a descendant of the Delta (B.1.167.2) variant. It carries two characteristic mutations in the spike, Y145H and A222V. It is likely to be elevated to the rank of ‘Variant under Investigation’.
1/— Prof Francois Balloux (@BallouxFrancois) October 16, 2021
For his part, Dr. Scott Gottlieb emphasized that scientists urgently need to start studying the new mutation, despite the fact that it has been found in only a few countries. He noted that AY.4.2 is the only Delta subtype that is growing steadily, which may indicate its advantage.
It is currently unknown how the mutation affects the behavior of the coronavirus. In total, the Delta strain has 56 mutations, and their number doubles every month.
UK reported its biggest one-day Covid case increase in 3 months just as the new delta variant AY.4 with the S:Y145H mutation in the spike reaches 8% of UK sequenced cases. We need urgent research to figure out if this delta plus is more transmissible, has partial immune evasion?
— Scott Gottlieb, MD (@ScottGottliebMD) October 17, 2021
As reported OBOZREVATEL, the leading infectious disease specialist of Ukraine Olga Golubovskaya said that Delta should be regarded as already slightly different diseasethan the original COVID-19. Just as it was with the arrival of the British version of the Alpha.
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