A scientific expert said it is likely that the new mutated coronavirus in the UK will become the dominant global strain of Covid-19.
Calum Semple, professor of outbreak medicine at the University of Liverpool and a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), told Sky News: “I suspect it will, or strains like it will (become dominant).
“Because the virus has the evolutionary advantage in transmitting more quickly, it will out-compete all the other strains, and so it will naturally do that.
“As immunity comes into the community more widely, then you’ll start to see more pressure on the virus and you’re more likely to see other escapes of other variations.
“This is not a surprise, we deal with this with influenza year-on-year.
“The flu vaccine typically contains three or four flavours of the influenza virus and we simply pick on a best-guess basis each season and then people that make the vaccines scale up in a timely manner.”
The variant is 70 petr cent more infectious than the original strains and may be more infectious for children.
It could increase the R rate of transmission in the Uk by 0.4 or even more then 0.9 according to some models.
The emergence of the new variant is responsible for the creation of Tier 4 in England and the cancellation of Christmas bubbles across the UK.
It has also seen borders shut between the UK and a number of countries. It has already been detected in other EU countries including the Netherlands and Iceland and could be in Italy and Belgium.
