<Anchor> A
new mutant coronavirus has been confirmed again in the UK.
In particular, this mutation is known to have great resistance to antibodies.
If that happens, there are concerns that the effectiveness of the existing vaccine may decrease, or a person who has been cured may get corona again, but reporter Kim Young-ah will deliver more details.
<Reporter>
Researchers at the University of Edinburgh in the UK say they have identified a new mutant virus in samples collected last December.
The new British mutation is similar to the British mutation discovered earlier, but has several other characteristics.
A representative one is the E484K mutation, which is the main characteristic of the South African mutation.
E484K is believed to function to allow viruses to more effectively evade antibodies in the body.
In fact, existing vaccines showed similar or rather higher effectiveness against the UK variant, but significantly less prevented against the South African variant.
NovaVax's South African clinical trial also showed that 2% of patients who had been infected once were reinfected.
Experts believe it is all due to E484K, which increases the virus's resistance to antibodies.
Simon Clark, professor of microbiology at the University of Reading, feared that the spread of the new mutant virus would weaken the immunity gained from any vaccine or past infection.
To date, 32 new UK mutations have been identified in the UK alone and in 10 countries, including Denmark and Australia.
Some point out that there is an urgent need to modify the vaccine to counter the evolving virus before further spreading.
AstraZeneca has announced that it will release a vaccine that can respond to mutations by this fall, and Pfizer and Modena are also spurring the work of modifying the vaccine.
(Video editing: Seungjin Lee)