TWo children among six with new Covid strain

Two of the six people in India who were confirmed on Tuesday to have been infected with the new coronavirus variant that originated in the UK are children, a two-year-old

Two of the six people in India who were confirmed on Tuesday to have been infected with the new coronavirus variant that originated in the UK are children, a two-year-old girl and a six-year-old girl, reinforcing concerns that the mutation may have made the Sars-Cov-2 more adept at infecting the young, who till now have been less susceptible to the virus.

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The new variant of the coronavirus – called VOC-202012/01 – has been established by experts in the UK to be more transmissible and, although it does not seem to cause more severe disease, more cases could mean more number of people who require hospitalisations.

The first clues that these could also have an implication for children were disclosed by authorities in UK. “There is a hint that it has a higher propensity to infect children,” said Neil Ferguson, a professor and infectious disease epidemiologist at Imperial College London and also a member of the UK government’s New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG), on December 21.

The variant carries 17 changes from the virus that first began spreading from Wuhan last year, including a change known as N501Y, which enhances the pathogen’s ability to bind to host cells. The virus uses a doorway called ACE-2 receptors through which it enters cells and N501Y is believed to make the spike protein more capable of binding to ACE-2.

Wendy Barclay, also from Nervtag and Imperial College London, said the mutations to the virus appeared to be making it easier to walk through these doorways. “Therefore children are equally susceptible, perhaps, to this virus as adults,” she said, according to BBC.