New lethal Covid variant puts world on high alert

New Delhi, Dec 21 : While several countries are still struggling to tame the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), the emergence of the new and deadly mutated variant of the “pandemic coronavirus” has put the world once again on high alert as 2021 knocks at the door.
The scientists have scrambled to figure out whether the UK variant titled ‘B.1.1.7’ is really more adept at human-to-human transmission. They’re also wondering how it evolved so fast.
According to the prestigious journal Science, the ‘B.1.1.7’ variant has acquired 17 mutations all at once — a feat never seen before.
“There’s now a frantic push to try and characterise some of these mutations in the lab,” Andrew Rambaut, a molecular evolutionary biologist at the University of Edinburgh, was quoted as saying by the magazine on Sunday.
According to the researchers, it seems that this variant (also dubbed as VUI-202012/01) is now starting to dominate over existing versions of the coronavirus.
The worry is: Scientists say that ‘B.1.1.7’ may already be much more widespread. Other than the UK, it has been detected in the Netherlands, Denmark, Italy and Australia.