A new variant of the COVID-19, baptized “B.1.214”, was recently discovered in Belgium. This new variant particularly attracts the attention of researchers to its “almost never observed” mutation so far.
This variant is yet another variant of the COVID-19 among the 4000 already identified. But, “where, for the other variants, there was rather a deletion within the genome of the virus (a disappearance of certain letters in the genomic line) here, we observe an insertion, i.e. an addition of nucleotides to the sequence of the SPIKE protein. This is unheard of so far in the variants of SARS-COV-2, ”explains Vincent Bours, head of the analysis and sequencing laboratory of the SARS-COV-2 virus at the University of Liège.
For the time being, nothing indicates that this variant is more dangerous than the others, reassure the researchers. According to the evening, the samples withdrawn were practically all of patients who are neat at ambulatory, and therefore not requiring resuscitation care.
