Covid map shows how much mutant strain has spread in just four months
The rapid spread of the new UK variant is depicted in graph tracing its evolution.
A rapidly-changing map shows how quickly the new mutant strain of Covid-19 became the dominant form of the virus in the UK.
The colour-coded chart depicts the mutation – shown in lime green – in a type of family tree as it is traced by scientists based on lab samples.
Experts have said the new form of coronavirus is more infectious than other types of the virus because of a change, known as N501, relating to the spike protein used by the virus to hijack cells and enter the body.
The UK Government has said the variant has not been linked to greater severity of the disease or been shown to be resistant to the new vaccines.
The sub-type has been traced back to September 2020, after which it spread at a low rate until mid-November, when clusters were discovered in Kent and London.
The majority of cases are in the capital, the South East and East of England.
The variant – given the title 20B/501Y.V1 – has been captured in a graph below as it rapidly evolves in the Covid family tree.
The sequences date back to the emergence of the type in September.
Each dot in the timeline represents a genome sequence – the breakdown of an organism’s DNA – that has been taken by labs in the UK.
Using this method, scientists are able to track the myriad branches of SARS-CoV-2 as they spread and evolve.
The image shown is only one snapshot of a vast global picture as thousands of different clusters spread, mutate and form sub-types.
Nextstrain, an open-source analysis website run by researchers at universities across Europe, is continually updating the clades based on sequences from labs around the world including the Wellcome Sanger Institute for the Covid-19 Genomics UK Consortium.
Researcher Dr Emma Hodcroft, a molecular epidemiologist at the University of Berne in Switzerland, said: ‘The virus mutates all the time. It’s a normal part of virus life and a lot of these mutations don’t do anything at all.
‘We use sequences to make these family trees essentially to show the relationships but we are always on the lookout for signs to show that something has changed.’
Dr Hodcroft wrote on Twitter today: ‘It didn’t have to be like this. It doesn’t have to continue like this. But we must have a plan. Be ready to act swiftly. And be willing to bring cases down, to save lives and livelihoods.’
Even when a variant emerges, changes that take place within an infected human mean a new chain of sub-types emerge further along the line.
The pie-chart below shows how the UK mutation has become the main form of the N501 variant with that branch of the much larger Covid map.
The rise of the new variant comes as the UK registers its second highest number of daily deaths since the pandemic began, with 1,162 fatalities.
The figures released yesterday are only surpassed by the peak on April 21, when there were 1,224 cases within 28 hours of a positive Covid-19 test.
Laboratories are also urgently working to ascertain how effective vaccines are against another variant discovered in South Africa.
Preliminary research from Pfizer and the University of Texas Medical Branch suggests its jab will still work.
However the Government has imposed new rules for travellers because of the mutation, requiring everyone arriving in England and Scotland to obtain a negative antigen test 72 hours before departure.
From 4am tomorrow (Saturday), entry into England will also be banned to anyone who has travelled from or through any southern African country in the last 10 days.
British and Irish nationals, long-term visa holders and permanent residents are excluded but are required to self-isolate for 10 days after arrival.
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