Meet the new Delta breed “AY 4.2”

What are the details about the new Corona strain "AY.4.2" (AY.4.2), what is happening now about Corona, why did the numbers increase, then what do experts think, and did the effectiveness of vaccines decrease?

What is the nature of the new Corona strain “AY.4.2” (AY.4.2)?

The new Corona strain AY 4.2 is a new mutation of the Delta strain under investigation in the United Kingdom, and there are fears that it could make the virus more transmissible, according to a report in CNBC.

However, there are still many unknowns about this strain (also called mutated, mutant and new sub-strain of Delta), and it has not been called a "mutant of concern" yet.

UK government health officials said it was too early to tell whether the mutation posed a greater public health risk than the delta variant, which itself is more contagious than the original Covid-19 strain and the alpha strain.

But they said they are watching the boom closely, as it now accounts for 6% of UK COVID-19 cases that have been genetically sequenced at a time when infections in the country are rising rapidly.

Last Friday, the UK's Health Security Agency released a report saying that "a delta sub-strain recently identified as AY.4.2 was observed expanding in England".

The agency said it was monitoring the subtype, which includes mutations in the spike protein A222V and Y145H, a protein that the coronavirus uses to enter cells.

Is the new Corona strain “AY 4.2” related to the increase in infections in the United Kingdom and Russia?

The new corona strain AY 4.2 is being diagnosed in a growing number of “Covid-19” cases in the UK, with some suggesting it may be a factor in the country’s growing health crisis that has prompted some doctors to demand the reimposition of Covid-19 restrictions. .

The United Kingdom is currently witnessing a prolonged and alarming rise in “Covid-19” cases, as it reported between 40,000-50,000 new infections per day in the past week, which has led experts to question why the United Kingdom is exposed to the Covid virus at the present time.

It has been reported that the AY 4.2 corona strain is 10-15% more transmissible than the original Delta strain, according to a report in the British Financial Times, but it is too early to say for sure whether it caused the infection. The number of cases in the UK is rising.

Today, Thursday, the RIA news agency said that Russia had recorded some cases of the "AY 4.2" strain.

The agency quoted Kamil Khavizov, chief researcher at the Consumer Protection Agency, a government body, as saying that it is possible that the "AY 4.2" strain will spread widely.

However, it should be noted that although the new corona strain AY 4.2 has been monitored, it has not been classified as a "variant under investigation" or a "variant of concern" by the WHO. Global, that is, it is not identified as containing genetic changes expected to affect characteristics of the virus such as transmissibility, disease severity, immune escape, diagnostic or therapeutic escape.

 Nor has it been confirmed that it causes significant community transmission.

However, this situation can change after further monitoring and continues to appear in an increasing number of cases.

For his part, Andrew Pollard, head of the Oxford Vaccine Group that helped develop the AstraZeneca oxford vaccine, said on Wednesday that the new strain will not change the picture of Covid.

"The discovery of the new variants is of course important to monitor, but it does not indicate that the new variant will be the next variant to replace Delta," Pollard told BBC radio, quoted by Reuters.

The director of the Institute of Genetics at the University of California, Francois Ballou, believes that this new strain is still rare and does not seem to pose the risks posed by other breeds, according to a statement to Agence France-Presse.

For his part, Professor of Immunology at Imperial College London, Danny Altman, told CNBC the sub-strain AY 4.2 needs to be monitored.

He added that since delta has now become the dominant mutation in many regions about 6 months ago and has not been displaced by any other variables, the hope was that delta might represent the peak mutation performance that the virus could achieve.

He cautioned that AY 4.2 may begin to cast doubt on this assertion.

Several regions of the world are witnessing an increase in infections

Today, Thursday, Russia recorded 1,036 deaths related to the Corona virus in the past 24 hours, as well as monitoring 36,339 new infections, in a record increase that prompted the authorities to re-impose some health restrictions.

The mayor of Moscow announced that elderly people over the age of 60 who have not received the vaccine against "Covid-19" will be required not to leave their homes for 4 months, and the government agreed to suspend work for a week to combat a rapid increase in infections, which the Kremlin said was caused by the slow vaccination campaign.

In northern China, regions are preparing for more restrictions to combat "Covid-19" due to a wave of cases that raise fears of a wider outbreak, and 3 regions have implemented closures, while some schools have suspended studies and an aviation and space industries company has postponed work on a missile project.

The new focus, which includes mainly the north and northwest of the country, spread to the capital, Beijing, and neighboring Hebei Province, where officials pledged to impose strict measures to combat the virus as they ramp up efforts to prepare for the 2022 Winter Olympics in February.

The government-backed Aerospace Industries Corporation (EXPACE) said it has postponed work on a mission involving the Kuaishu 1-A missile in Jiuquan, where the country has launched missiles frequently, as part of efforts to control the pandemic.

Staff were asked to go into a "semi-close" and avoid contact with the outside world.

And on Tuesday, a Reuters report said that Corona virus infections in the Netherlands jumped by 44% in a week, forcing many hospitals in the country to reduce regular care in order to receive the increasing number of “Covid-19” infections.

Official data showed that injuries reached their highest level since the end of July, reaching 25,751 injuries, an increase for the third week in a row, after easing many social distancing measures in the Netherlands last month.

And in Germany, the Robert Koch Institute announced, today, Thursday, that the increase in the weekly infection rate with the Corona virus continues for the eighth consecutive day.

Today, the institute indicated that this rate, which is the number of infections per 100,000 people over 7 days, reached 85.6 this morning in Germany, while it was 80.4 yesterday, Wednesday, and this rate was 67 a week ago.

 What is the explanation for the high injuries?

The matter is not completely clear, and it may be the result of easing the closure procedures in many countries of the world, and the low rates of vaccination, in addition to the possibility that the AY 4.2 strain is more contagious.

Another possible explanation is transmission through children, as the head of the British National Health Service, David Pryor, said that it is possible for school-age children to infect older people whose immunity is diminished, according to the German news agency Bloomberg on Wednesday.

"It's too early to say, but that's what we think is the most likely explanation," Pryor said in an interview at a health conference in Boston.

For his part, Scott Gottlieb, the former commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration, wrote on Twitter that "urgent research" is needed to determine whether the new Delta strain "AY4.2", which represents 8% of cases whose sequence appeared recently in the United Kingdom, More transmissible and more able to evade immune defenses.

Some scientists also attribute the current rise in infections to the poor vaccination of minors and the low immunity of elderly people who are vaccinated too early.

Is there a decrease in the effectiveness of corona vaccines?

The answer is true that recently a slight decrease in the effectiveness of “Covid-19” vaccines has been observed over a period of months in the general population, but the percentage of protection they provide is still high.

Currently, a booster dose is recommended for a certain group of people.

In a report published in the French newspaper "Liberation", author Florian Gautier says that according to studies, the emergence of both the mutated alpha and beta strain does not seem to have changed the results much, with a marginal decrease in efficacy more than initially expected. But this may not apply to the Delta strain, as British data published in the journal Nature indicate a decrease in the effectiveness of “Covid-19” vaccines against it by 10% to 13% for Pfizer and 16% for AstraZeneca (compared to its effectiveness against the mutant). alpha).

These field observations are necessary to reconsider the vast amount of empirical data on the evolution of vaccination conferred immunity to context.

Sure, the number of antibodies decreases within 6 months, but antibodies are not the only weapon of the immune system, there are also cells responsible for immune memory (and the ability to respond quickly in the event of a new infection) that develop in people who have received vaccines.

But even when the antibodies fail to stop the infection, the vaccinated people's immunity is still better armed against the virus.

For this reason, the infection in infected people who have received the vaccine is milder and their ability to clear the virus is greater and faster, according to a study published in early September in The Lancet, and reported by Liberation.

The writer said that at the end of August, the High Authority of Health in France recommended a third dose of the vaccine for those over 65 years of age and those at risk after a period of at least 6 months after receiving the two doses, given that the decrease in the effectiveness of vaccination was more pronounced in this group. Of the population.

Currently, the available data do not seem to justify extending the third dose to other populations.