Scientists have found that a specific mutation, known as 614G, which was first spotted in China in early January and then spread quickly throughout Europe and NY city, made the pandemic harder to stop.
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Florida Researchers Say Coronavirus Becoming More Infectious in Mutant Form
Scientists at a research institute in Florida said studies they have conducted into the novel coronavirus reveal a mutated strain of the virus is more infectious than the version that first began spreading across the globe in late 2019.
This coronavirus mutation has taken over the world. Scientists are trying to understand why.
A mutation that seems trivial could be making the virus spread more easily. At least four laboratory experiments suggest that the mutation makes the virus more infectious, although none of that work has been peer-reviewed. Another unpublished study led by scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory asserts that patients with the G variant actually have more virus in their bodies, making them more likely to spread it to others.
Do We Need to Worry About Coronavirus Mutations?
Worries that the coronavirus might mutate to become even more infectious and deadly are understandable — but mostly unwarranted. It’s true that viruses tend to mutate as they spread across the world over time. And it’s also true that those mutations have the potential to give viruses new, perhaps harmful, traits. But fortunately, the likelihood of that actually happening is extremely slim, according to science.
China's new outbreak shows the Virus could be changing
Chinese doctors are seeing the coronavirus manifest differently among patients in its new cluster of cases in the northeast region compared to the original outbreak in Wuhan. Patients found in the north east appear to carry the virus for a longer period of time and take longer to test negative.
Will Covid-19 mutate into a more dangerous virus?
As the coronavirus spreads around the world, there are concerns that it will mutate into a form that is more transmissible, more dangerous or both, potentially making the global health crisis even worse. What do we know about the way the virus is evolving?