Coronavirus Australia live coverage: Mutant virus ‘an urgent concern’, scientists warn
About half the COVID-19 cases in Australia studied by the country's national science agency have reportedly been found to be a mutant strain of the virus.
news.com.au MAY 9, 2020 1:54AM
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Last updated May 9, 2020 3:35AM AEST
About half the COVID-19 cases in Australia studied by the country's national science agency have reportedly been found to be a mutant strain of the virus.
Labelled an “urgent concern’’ by international researchers, about two-thirds of cases in hard-hit countries have been found to have the mutation, The Weekend Australian has revealed.
Australia has recorded 6912 cases of COVID-19, with 3047 in New South Wales, 1467 in Victoria, 1045 in Queensland, 439 in South Australia, 552 in Western Australia, 225 in Tasmania, 107 in the Australian Capital Territory and 30 in the Northern Territory.
Australia’s death toll remains on 97.
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Mutant virus ‘an urgent concern’
About half the COVID-19 cases in Australia studied by the country's national science agency have reportedly been found to be a mutant strain of the virus.
Labelled an “urgent concern’’ by international researchers, about two-thirds of cases in hard-hit countries have been found to have the mutation, The Weekend Australian has revealed.
Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists in the US this week published a paper that documented 14 mutations in the coronavirus spike protein that attaches itself to human cells, identifying one of the spike mutations — known as D614G — as being of “urgent concern”, the newspaper reports.
According to the experts, the mutation spike D614G began spreading in Europe in early February, and quickly became the dominant form of SARS-CoV-2 when it was introduced to new regions.
The team, which included scientists from Duke University in North Carolina and the University of Sheffield in England, said the concern around the readily mutating virus is that any vaccine developed for the current dominant strain may not be effective on it.
Despite the prevalence of the apparent new strain of the coronavirus in all states nationwide, the CSIRO does not believe it is necessarily more contagious, as speculated by international scientists.
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