New hyper-infectious coronavirus strain may be 'a good thing', says disease expert

A strain of the novel coronavirus spreading across large parts of the globe may be ten times more infectious but less deadly, a top disease expert has said.

President-elect of the International Society of Infectious Diseases, Paul Tambyah, has said evidence suggests the proliferation of the D614G mutation in some parts of the world has coincided with a drop in death rates.

He said this could mean the new strain, increasingly found in Europe, North America and parts of Asia, is less lethal.

Epidemiologists may not be surprised, as the majority of viruses tend to become less virulent as they mutate - a way of ensuring its own survival in its host.

Prof Tambyah told Reuters: "Maybe that's a good thing to have a virus that is more infectious but less deadly.

"It is in the virus' interest to infect more people but not to kill them, because a virus depends on the host for food and for shelter.”

The new strain of the novel coronavirus is spreading rapidly across the globe, experts believe
Getty Images

The World Health Organisation has said scientists discovered the D614G mutation as early as February, and that the body as yet has no evidence the mutation has led to more severe disease.

Last month Professor Nick Loman, who is part of the Covid-19 Genomics Consortium, also said D614G appears to be less deadly, and that he believes it is currently in the UK and spreading faster than Covid-19 did in the first wave.

The mutation is believed to be behind two clusters of the virus in Malaysia, and the country’s health director has urged greater vigilance.

The director, Noor Hisham Abdullah, said the D614G strain detected in the clusters was 10 times more infectious than the original Covid-19.

He also warned that vaccines currently in development may not be effective against this mutation.

This would be a concern for countries around the globe pumping billions into finding a vaccine for Covid-19 as quickly as possible, in order to protect both populations and economies.

But Prof Tambyah disagreed, saying such mutations would not likely change the virus enough to make potential vaccines less effective.

He said: "The mutant affects the binding of the spike protein and not necessarily the recognition of the protein by the immune system, which would be primed by a vaccine."

The news comes as England and Wales recorded the lowest number of weekly deaths involving coronavirus since the UK went into lockdown in March.

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