Fear in the world increases for the new variant of Covid-19

This Thursday a group of South African scientists has detected a new variant of Covid-19, which has generated great concern around the world. So much so that the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has made known a new measure.

Thus, starting this Friday, all of Europe will propose the suspension of flights to the southern regions of Africa to try to stop the spread of this new variant on the European continent.

After making this announcement known, the first suspensions of the flights to Africa have been known, mainly that of Spain, who will take it to discussion next Tuesday during the Council of the Minister.

The world shows its concern

This news has clearly put the whole world on alert, when everything seems to be under control, a new variant appears that is growing its contagion rate very quickly. This is how the professor of Microbiology at the University of Navarra Guillermo Martínez de Tejada has made known his concern about the new variant.

"This is something that must be highlighted and that we had not seen until now, the Delta variant became predominant in three months, this new variant has done so in just two weeks," he commented.

Compared to the Delta Plus variant, it has presented some novelties, which accumulates around 50 mutations, of which 30 of them are in the spike protein area of the virus and 10 are in the receptor area.

This is to explain that some mutations are known, while others are not. This according to what the microbiologist has commented, so the concern is generated because most of the mutations are in the area of the protein that is what the vaccine uses to generate immunity.

WHO must rate the status of the new variant

Although it is still very quick to make a decision, the WHO (World Health Organization) will have to decide whether to classify the new variant B.1.1.529 as worrisome and for this they have established a meeting this Friday, where they have raised the mutations to 100 in a statement.

"It is very clear that we are facing a very worrying scenario. Several experiments have been set up to verify whether the antibodies generated by the vaccines are capable of neutralizing the B.1.1.529 variant," says Martínez de Tejada.

What are the steps to take?

So far it is not known if "Nu", which would be the name of this variant given by the WHO, will be responsible for infecting people with a much more serious disease, but everything indicates that it will be much more transmissible.

This is the main reason why the professor insists on the importance of following some precautionary measures. "I believe that the arrival of passengers from countries with a high incidence of the new variant should begin to be restricted in order to avoid its transmission," he adds.

In the same way, he recalled that the measures are always social distancing, constant handwashing and the use of a mask. These measures will be effective in preventing all mutations from continuing to emerge.