A new strain of COVID-19 which is likely to be more infectious than the original variant has been detected in the Philippines, according to the Philippine Genome Center (PGC). On its bulletin published August 13, PGC has found out the presence of G614 or the "G" variant, taken from small positive cases of patients from Quezon City in particular.
When the outbreak started in the country last March, D614 genotype showed up to be most common. However, in the recent small sample of positive cases taken last June, both D614 and G614 have been detected.
" Although this information confirms the presence of G614 in the Philippines, we note that all the samples tested were from Quezon City and may not represent the mutational landscape for the whole country." the bulletin read.
“Together with the observation that G614 is now the dominant viral state, the authors claim that the said mutation can increase the viral rate of transmission.”
"However, there is still no definitive evidence showing that carriers of the G614 variant are actually more transmissible than those with D614," the research added.
An international researchers from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and Duke University in North Carolina found an evidence that this new strain of coronavirus is more likely infectious in cell culture.
No comments:
Post a Comment