Kent Covid variant ‘on course to sweep the world’

Director of UK's genetic surveillance programme predicts transmissibility will cause scientists difficulties for next decade

The director of the UK’s genetic surveillance programme has predicted the Kent Covid-19 variant is likely to sweep the world (Andrew Milligan/PA )

The Covid-19 variant first found in Kent is likely to sweep the world and become the most dominant strain, the director of the UK's genetic surveillance programme has said.

The variant has been detected across Britain, in more than 50 countries and "it's going to sweep the world, in all probability", Professor Sharon Peacock from the Covid-19 Genomics UK (Cog-UK) Consortium told the BBC's Newscast podcast.

The new variant initially led to London and parts of southern and eastern England being rushed into tier 4 restrictions prior to Christmas, before stricter measures were introduced throughout the UK.

Analysis of the variant, known as B117, suggests it is up to 70 per cent more transmissible than the previous strain that was dominant in the UK.

Prof Peacock, professor of public health and microbiology at the University of Cambridge, predicted transmissibility was likely to cause scientists difficulties for at least a decade.

She told Newscast: “Once we get on top of it [Covid-19] or it mutates itself out of being virulent – causing disease – then we can stop worrying about it.

"But I think, looking in the future, we're going to be doing this for years. We're still going to be doing this 10 years down the line, in my view."

Despite data suggesting the mutant variant may be more deadly, there is no evidence to indicate existing treatments, such as dexamethasone, will not be effective against it.

A study has suggested that people infected with the UK variant are less likely to report a loss of taste and smell.

There are now four "variants of concern" of the virus that causes Covid-19 identified by government advisers. Three of these have been found in the UK, and the fourth is the Brazil variant identified in people who had travelled to Japan.

Analysis is ongoing to establish the impact of these mutations on the virus.

Earlier this month, AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford said their vaccine had been found to provide only limited protection against mild and moderate disease caused by the South African variant in early data from a small trial.

However, researchers said a version of the jab that works against news variants should be available by the autumn.

The study, which has not been peer-reviewed, was conducted by South Africa's University of the Witwatersrand and Oxford University.

It analysed the E484K mutation in more than 2,000 people, with most of the participants considered young and healthy.

Additional reporting by PA