Corona mutation from Spain: New virus variant is spreading throughout Europe - including Germany

From Spain, it is now rampant across Europe: "20A.EU1", a variant of Sars-CoV-2.

New study from Basel gives us food for thought: Was it fatal to relax travel restrictions?

• In the summer, researchers * in

  Spain discovered

  a

  new variant

  of Sars-CoV-2.

• If you believe a new study, the

  coronavirus *

  variant was introduced

  to other countries

  by

  tourism

  .

• Was it

  too fast and too easy to open borders

  in

  Europe

  ?

Basel - Adapt or become extinct: Like other

,

constantly

evolving

.

around the

world are researching

the mutations of the

and have already found thousands of

in the genome of the pathogen, hundreds of them are also rampant in

- some of them are spreading faster, others are ebbing away.

Not only the relaxed

restrictions

in summer favored infections with the

within the countries

, especially

were able

to bring

the

- and its variations -

home with them after

the

.

As researchers at the

now discovered, this is precisely

how

a

that originated in

in the summer could

reach

other parts of

.

Due to the

in summer, the variant is

in many other countries

well represented today, suggests the Swiss scientists to

, now a study has published.

Together with her team,

analyzed

sequences

from

from all over Europe * in order to

of

the new variant.

If the study is to be

,

first appeared in the summer in

among farm workers.

From there, the

must have

passed on to the broader population of the country and, after

finally reached other countries in

and the world

through travelers

.

According to the study,

still

determines

around 80 percent of the

in Spain.

Coronavirus: From Spain to all of Europe - is 20A.EU1 more infectious than other variants?

In a press release the

and

shares

with that one now said variant - at different times - in twelve other countries

and also in

and

could prove.

With around 90 percent of the

, the "introduced" variant

is even more represented

in the

than in Spain itself. In

was found to be 60 percent, in

and the

30 to 40 percent each.

It is also found in

and

.

The spread of 20A.EU1 shows how a series of failures in # SARSCoV2 measures likely led to its dominance: high prevalence in Spain, ineffective travel screening / quarantine, & insufficient control of transmission of variants brought back to 'home' countries.

12/16 pic.twitter.com/EKzryWXXqm

- Dr Emma Hodcroft (@ firefoxx66) October 29, 2020

But what makes

so special?

The variation is characterized by changes in the

the virus.

As

explains, the

helps

the virus to penetrate the cells.

The

researchers have not yet been able to answer the

question of whether the

in

question

change this ability - this type of

is more infectious than others, for example.

However, one could

suspect

this due to the strong spreading

of

.

In fact, it is more than difficult to determine whether the virus variant spreads faster and more easily than others.

As

describes, other mechanisms can ensure that over time a

predominates - for example so-called

.

At a certain point in time, a variant could have been introduced only slightly more often than other currently rampant variants for various reasons.

However, since

particular

is known for the fact that only a small number of

cause

a large part of the

*, mere coincidence could have ensured that certain

conspicuously often in

to date

.

Virologists at the University of Basel: Corona mutation 20A.EU1 apparently no more dangerous than other variants

In

any case, the

is that none of the thousands of

has significantly influenced

the course of the

.

"It is important to note that there is currently no indication that the spread of the new variant is based on a mutation that increases transmission or influences the course of the disease,"

therefore explicitly

emphasizes

.

is not the only variant that is currently being used in Europe, explains

from the

the author of the study, and notes that in other countries completely different variants are responsible for the increase in the number of

.

Video: Serious mutation in the coronavirus?

Virologist sees clear clue

Hodcroft

knows about the difficult topic that the study will put up for

again

: Nobody wants complete

or strict

, according to the virologist.

But the analysis shows that the measures in the summer were not sufficient to stop the spread of the virus and new

.