Coronavirus has played havoc on the world. Along with the health conditions the economic conditions have also been disrupted severely. Just when the world was hoping for a vaccine to put an end to the lethal virus, a new strain of coronavirus has been found in the UK. When the whole of Europe was breathing a sigh of relief, this terrible news woke them up to anew nightmare.
The scientific community emphasized that all the viruses mutate as it is their nature to do so. The flu viruses mutate too and therefore it is very necessary to keep on updating vaccines. The coronavirus many times has already mutated before. The coronaviruses always have a tendency to jump from humans to animals or vice versa. Though Dr. Tang stated, “We are not seeing any increased virulence [clinical severity] or any gross changes in the S [spike protein] that will reduce vaccine effectiveness — so far”. Dr. Jeremy Farrar, Director of Wellcome Trust, said, “At the moment, there is no indication that this new strain would evade treatments and vaccines.
However, the mutation is a reminder of the power of the virus to adapt and that cannot be ruled out in the future.”
Many countries are scrambling to ban flights arriving from the UK or departing to the UK. The new variant virus appeared in the Netherlands.
It has also affected one person in Italy who recently arrived returned from Britain as said by the officials. The American health officials said that they looking closely and carefully into the new virus variant. Norway has banned flights from Britain. Saudi Arabia also seeing the concern among their citizens banned all the flights from the UK for a week.
Netherlands suspended all flights from the UK till 1st January 2021. Several European countries like Italy, Belgium, Germany, and France have banned flights from the UK. Israel also banned foreign arrivals from Britain, Denmark as well as South Africa. Looking at the danger of the citizens from the new variant of new coronavirus India has halted flights to and from the UK.
Written By Saheli Debnath.