The new coronavirus variant found in three countries so far appears to “spread more quickly”, a scientist has said.
The Uk has placed six countries on the red list for travel after the discovery of a new variant with twice as many mutations as Delta.
There are fears it could spread quickly and evade current vaccines.
Professor James Naismith, director of the Rosalind Franklin Institute, told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme the new variant will “almost certainly” make the vaccines less effective.
Asked if it is highly transmissible, he added: “We don’t really know that’s for sure yet
“It has mutations consistent with the Delta variant, which does spread more quickly, but transmissibility and spread is not just as simple as this amino acid does this or this does that, it’s more like a team on things.
“So you can sometimes have the mutations all together but they won’t be effective as a team.
“It looks like it spreads more quickly but we do not know that.”
Professor Naismith, added: “If it spreads more quickly then yes it will get here, the travel ban will delay its arrival but if it spreads more quickly the lesson has surely been from all the variants we’ve seen before that it will get here eventually.
“We shouldn’t despair, vaccines will be effective, so if you haven’t had your vaccine go and get it, be that the booster, the first dose, the second dose.
“Secondly there are new medicines coming along… these will not be affected almost certainly by this mutation.
“We have got much better at controlling the disease in other ways in hospital so it is bad news but it is not doomsday.”
