Covid-19: New variant with potentially worrying mutations discovered in the United Kingdom
Dr Simon Clarke, an associate professor of cellular microbiology at the University of Reading, said that while it was unclear what effect many of the mutations may have on the ability of the coronavirus to establish an infection or on the severity of disease, the presence of the E484K mutation was known in the South African variant to confer a degree of resistance to some vaccines.
Surge testing is the rollout of additional community testing of people who do not have symptoms of coronavirus, with the aim of helping scientists learn more about different variants of Covid-19. But Prof Jonathan Stoye, a group leader at the Francis Crick Institute, said that while the variant was clearly spreading, surge testing had problems, including that those most at risk of spreading Covid may not come forward, for example because they cannot afford financially to test positive.