- A genetic study of samples from more than 7,500 people infected with COVID-19 was conducted by Scientists at University College London’s Genetics Institute.
- The study suggests that the new coronavirus spread quickly around the world after it emerged in China sometime between October and December last year.
- The scientists found almost 200 recurrent genetic mutations of the new coronavirus – SARS-CoV-2.
- The UCL researchers also showed how it adapts to its human hosts as it spreads.
A recently published article in Reuters written by Kate Kelland, elaborates on the A genetic study of samples from more than 7,500 people infected with COVID-19. It also, recurrent genetic mutations of the new coronavirus – SARS-CoV-2 and how it adapts to its human hosts during its spread.
“Phylogenetic estimates support that the COVID-2 pandemic started sometime around Oct. 6, 2019 to Dec. 11, 2019, which corresponds to the time of the host jump into humans,” the research team, co-led by Francois Balloux, wrote in a study published in the journal Infection, Genetics and Evolution.
Balloux said the analysis also found that the virus was and is mutating, as normally happens with viruses, and that a large proportion of the global genetic diversity of the virus causing COVID-19 was found in all of the hardest-hit countries.
That suggests SARS-CoV-2 was being transmitted extensively around the world from early on in the epidemic, he said.
“All viruses naturally mutate. Mutations in themselves are not a bad thing and there is nothing to suggest SARS-CoV-2 is mutating faster or slower than expected,” he said. “So far, we cannot say whether SARS-CoV-2 is becoming more or less lethal and contagious.”
Scientists at Britain’s University of Glasgow who also analysed SARS-CoV-2 virus samples suggested there were two different strains was inaccurate.
Its only one type of virus circulates
A preliminary study by Chinese scientists in March had suggested there may have been two strains of the new coronavirus causing infections there, with more of them more “aggressive” than the other.
But, publishing their analysis in the journal Virus Evolution, the Glasgow team said only one type of the virus was circulating.
The number of infected people cross 3.71 Million
- More than 3.71 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 258,186 have died, according to a Reuters tally.
- Cases have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since they were first identified in China in December 2019.
- The genetic studies offer “fascinating” insights into the evolution of the virus, and emphasise that it is “a moving target with an unknown evolutionary destination”, said Jonathan Stoye, head of the division of virology at Britain’s Francis Crick Institute.
COVID – 19 in France as early as December 27, 2019
A study by French scientists published earlier this week found a man in France was infected with COVID-19 as early as Dec. 27, nearly a month before authorities there confirmed the first cases.
The World Health Organization said the French case was “not surprising” and urged countries to investigate any other early suspicious cases.
Balloux’s team screened the genomes of more than 7,500 viruses from infected patients around the world. Their results add to a growing body of evidence that SARS-CoV-2 viruses share a common ancestor from late 2019, suggesting this was when the virus jumped from a previous animal host into people.
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Source: Reuters
