Scientists around the world are monitoring closely the spread of the highly infectious Delta variant in the UK.
The public-health authority of England reported Friday that it was monitoring a subtype variant of the Delta virus called AY.4.2 which has infected more people in recent years.
Francois Balloux (director at the University College London Genetics Institute) stated on Saturday that data regarding AY.4.2 suggests it could be 10% more transmissible to the UK's most common Delta variant, called AY.4.
He said, "As such it feels worthwhile keeping an ear on it."
Public Health England (PHE), which reported on Friday that 6 percent of UK-based sequenced tests were AY.4.2 as of September 27, stated that the estimates could be inaccurate because it is difficult to sequence variants' mutations.
Scott Gottlieb, the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, stated that the new variant was not an immediate cause for concern, but that it warranted urgent research to determine if it is more infectious or can avoid the body's immune system.
"We need to work faster to characterize these new variants." He tweeted that we have the tools and added that a coordinated global response was needed.
On Tuesday, Dr Jeffrey Barrett, the medical genomics group leader at Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, stated via Twitter that only AY.4.2 had a steady increase in Delta descendants, suggesting that there is a "consistent disadvantage" over Delta.
Barrett warned that AY.4.2 is replacing Delta at a slower pace than Delta had replaced the Alpha variant. Delta is believed to be 60 percent more infectious that Alpha.
Other countries have not yet seen the same pattern for AY.4.2.
Balloux stated in a Tuesday statement that the variant is "rare" in the UK. Only three cases have been detected in the US. He said that the variant was detected in Denmark, which is the only country with excellent genomic surveillance. It reached a frequency of 2 percent, but it has declined since.
There are new mutations
According to Scripps University's website Outbreak.info (which includes data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), COVID-19 is a virus that generates two new mutations each month. There are currently 56 Delta descendants. Prior to AY.4.2 PHE had been able to group Delta with its descendants together.
Two new mutations have been identified in AY.4.2's spike protein, the virus that attaches itself to human cells. These mutations are yet to be understood and will have an impact on the virus' behavior.
Balloux stated that neither of these mutations have been reported in any other varieties of concern.
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