“These studies provide the first convincing data showing that an observed genetic change (mutation) in Sars-CoV-2 has affected the severity of disease in patients,” said Gavin Smith at Duke-NUS.
The scientists said the findings had implications for vaccine development and treatments for Covid-19.
The variant, which likely came from Wuhan, China, was detected in a cluster of infections that occurred from January to March 2020. In Singapore, the virus was transmitted from person-to-person across several clusters before being contained.
An expert said this week that mutations in viruses may be “a good thing”. Viruses tend to become less virulent as they mutate so as to infect more people but not to kill them as they depend on the host for food and shelter, according to Paul Tambyah at Singapore's National University Hospital.
Reuters