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The Sun https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/11444268/coronavirus-mutated-30-times-deadlier-strain-europe/


DIRE STRAITS Coronavirus ‘has mutated 30 times with deadlier strain infecting
Europe’, scientists discover
CORONAVIRUS has mutated 30 times with the deadlier strain infecting Europe, scientists have claimed.

The killer virus has evolved into multiple different strains since it jumped from animals to humans in December, researchers from Zhejiang University in China discovered

And they claim that the most lethal strains are the ones that are rapidly spreading throughout Europe.

It comes as the UK is set to become the worst hit nation in Europe - with coronavirus deaths yesterday reaching 16,509.

The authors say their findings are the first to reveal how the mutation could affect the severity of the disease.

Scientists believe the virus - known as Sars-CoV-2 - is constantly mutating to overcome immune system resistance in different populations.
Viral load

The researchers made their revelation after assessing viral strains from 11 Chinese coronavirus patients.

The team, led by Professor Li Lanjuan, tested how effectively the virus could infect and kill human cells in the laboratory.

The amount of the virus, dubbed by experts as the viral load, was analysed in all the cells after one, two, four and eight hours, as well as the next day and
48 hours later.

And the experts also explored whether the virus structurally changed the cell during infection, known as the cytopathic effects, up to three days after the experiment.

They found that the most aggressive strains created up to 270 times as much viral load as the least deadly type.

And Professor Li and her team revealed that the strains that produced the highest viral load led to a "higher cell death ratio".

Writing in the study, which is published on medRxiv.org, the team said: "Our results show the observed mutations can have a direct impact on the viral load and CPE.

"This finding suggests the observed mutations in our study... can significantly
impact the pathogenicity (the ability to cause disease) of SARS-CoV-2." Deadlier strains

The scientists found some of the deadliest mutations in Zhejiang, where the university is located.

These strains had also been seen in several hard-hit European countries such as
Italy and Spain - before spreading to the US epicentre New York.

However, some of the milder mutations were the varieties mainly found in the US, including Washington state, which could be the strain that shut down Wuhan,
the city where the pandemic began in December.

Despite this, the researchers pointed out that the "full mutational diversity of the virus in Wuhan in the early days is still unknown".

The researchers warned that just because the mutations were milder, it didn't mean there was a low risk of mortality.

Ten of the 11 patients who were involved in the new study had clear links with Wuhan, where the virus originated.

Eight of the patients were men, and three were women and all of the participants, aged between four months and 71, recovered.

Two patients in Zhejiang, one in their 30s and one in their 50s, became severely ill after contracting weaker strains.

While both of the patients recovered, the older patient needed treatment in a hospital's intensive care unit.

30 strains detected

The scientists discovered about 30 strains in total and about 60 per cent of them, or 19, were new.

The authors say that patients with Covid-19 have been receiving the same treatment at hospital regardless of what strain they have.

They say that strains may need different efforts to fight the virus, which undergoes one mutation a month, scientists say.

They added: "Drug and vaccine development, while urgent, need to take the impact of these accumulating mutations...into account to avoid potential pitfalls."

Prof Ian Jones, Professor of Virology, University of Reading, said that it was "not surprising" that the new study revealed mutations had an effect on the virus' properties.

He said: "Coronaviruses generate mutations as part of their normal replication.
That some of these would have an effect on virus properties is not surprising.

"However, this is a lab study, a description of possibilities, it does not address how the virus moves in the human population where many factors, usually
summed up as virus “fitness”, apply at the same time.

"Virus tracking so far has not indicated any trend towards a version 2 of the virus.

“Rather than get distracted with potential mutants we should remain focused on detection and treatment of the virus as we find it now.
UK death toll could be 40% higher

In the UK, 124,743 people have tested positive for coronavirus, while the death
toll currently stands at 16,509.

However, earlier today shocking new figures revealed that the UK's coronavirus death toll could be 40 per cent higher than has been reported.

The new stats show there were 13,121 deaths in England and Wales up to April 10
- compared to the 9,288 announced at the time.

The difference is down to deaths that happened outside hospital - including at care homes, hospices and private homes - as well as delays in recording fatalities.

According to the statistics, 83.9 per cent (8,673 deaths) occurred in hospital,
while 18 per cent (1,662 deaths) were recorded outside.

Of the 1,622 deaths outside of hospital, 1,043 fatalities were in care homes, 466 in private homes, 87 in hospices, 21 in other communal establishments and 45 elsewhere.

The total number of deaths in care homes DOUBLED in the four weeks after the first Covid-19 death in the UK was recorded.

In that week, before coronavirus spread, just under 2,500 care home residents died from a range of causes.

That increased by almost 100 per cent by the week up to April 10 as Covid-19 outbreaks took hold at care homes.

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