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The New York Times (NYT) reported on the 3rd (local time) that a previously unknown mutation of the coronavirus has been found in New York City sewage.



According to the report, researchers from Texas A&M University, University of Missouri, and Queen's College have been conducting research to trace the virus that causes Corona 19 for over a year and a half, and found it.



The research team analyzed that these mutations have never been registered in the GISAID database, and that they have the properties of mutations like omicron mutations.



The researchers regularly collected New York City sewage samples from June 2020 and conducted gene sequencing (sequencing) focusing on the spike protein in January last year.



The researchers found that the virus with the new mutant form repeatedly appeared in some wastewater facilities.



New York City Health Department spokeswoman Michael Lanza confirmed that "we have never seen such a mutation among patients in New York City."



The exact source of these viruses is still being studied.



"All I can say at this point is that we have not found any mutations of this unknown origin in humans," said microbiologist Monita Trujillo, who participated in the study.



Analysts have been raised that it may be a virus from a confirmed patient who has avoided testing for COVID-19 or has not been detected by gene sequencing, but the research team dismissed the possibility that it was not.



New Yorkers tend to move around the city, but the virus appears repeatedly in several of the same wastewater facilities.



Research team member John Dennich, a virologist at Queen's College, suggested that long-term caregivers could be the source of the mutation, but no real evidence has been found.



It is also speculated that the virus originated from animals.



The researchers explained that they identified small amounts of RNA from dogs and cats when they analyzed genomic material from sewage where the virus was detected to trace the animal types.



Researchers have been working with the American Animal and Plant Quarantine Service (APHIS) since last summer to collect signs of the virus in blood and fecal samples from mice, but to no avail.



"There's no such thing as a perfectly plausible explanation," said Mark Johnson, a virologist at the University of Missouri, who was named in the paper.



The research team published these research results in the international scientific journal Nature.



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