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The Dutch government has banned all passenger flights from Britain after finding the first case of a new, more infectious coronavirus strain that is circulating in the UK.

The ban, from 6am local time until 1 January, came hours after Britain announced a stay at home order for part of the country to slow the new variant.

"An infectious mutation of the Covid-19 virus is circulating in the United Kingdom. It is said to spread more easily and faster and is more difficult to detect," the Dutch health ministry said in a statement.

The Dutch public health body, the RIVM, therefore "recommends that any introduction of this virus strain from the United Kingdom be limited as much as possible by limiting and/or controlling passenger movements".


😳

I dont think they will be the only country to do that!
 
Would be interesting to know who patient zero for the new variant was?

I imagine someone is looking into this.

Many countries have very limited genomic surveillance so its hard to even be sure of the country where this branch began, let alone which patient.

But in terms of the first known person whose sample was analysed and showed this same set of mutations in the UK, dont be surprised if it turns out to be someone tested as part of a hospital outbreak.
 
Report back in lay person terms please! With a score of 1-10 of how fucked we are.

I would bet that there are too many unknowns still, so its too early to judge.

My best hope case is that regardless of the properties of the new strain, fears over it will lead to massive rethinks about border control and travel in very many countries, and many lives could actually end up being saved as a result. But of course if this strain is inherently more transmissible, any new pandemic benefits that stem from tightened responses will be balanced against that, and I wouldnt like to guess whether the result will be nett positive or negative.
 
Would be interesting to know who patient zero for the new variant was?

I imagine someone is looking into this.
Many countries have very limited genomic surveillance so its hard to even be sure of the country where this branch began, let alone which patient.

But in terms of the first known person whose sample was analysed and showed this same set of mutations in the UK, dont be surprised if it turns out to be someone tested as part of a hospital outbreak.


There are suggestions it may have something to do with immunocompromised patients. 🥺


"....in places like the UK, immune compromised patients are treated with convalescent plasma donated by Covid-19 survivors, chock full of antibodies against the virus. If these therapies fail, the don't just fail the patient - they allow the virus inside them to adapt mutations to avoid those antibodies.It's only a theory, and the experimental results that could stand it up will be a long time in coming. But it's a plausible explanation for how the UK may have found itself home to a newly virulent strain of Covid-19.Government scientists said today it may be up to 70% more infectious than existing variants of Covid. That means we're going to have to try 70% harder to keep it under control before a vaccine hopefully halts its spread."


I hope this is wrong 😟
 
There are suggestions it may have something to do with immunocompromised patients. 🥺


"....in places like the UK, immune compromised patients are treated with convalescent plasma donated by Covid-19 survivors, chock full of antibodies against the virus. If these therapies fail, the don't just fail the patient - they allow the virus inside them to adapt mutations to avoid those antibodies.It's only a theory, and the experimental results that could stand it up will be a long time in coming. But it's a plausible explanation for how the UK may have found itself home to a newly virulent strain of Covid-19.Government scientists said today it may be up to 70% more infectious than existing variants of Covid. That means we're going to have to try 70% harder to keep it under control before a vaccine hopefully halts its spread."


I hope this is wrong 😟

I think there are already certain results which point somewhat in that direction. Just dont take them as proof of anything at this stage.

For example certain relevant mutations were seen in a patient who received convalescent plasma on a number of occasions. In the graph below the times labelled CP are when they were given convalescent plasma, and on those occasions the version of the virus with some specific mutations, shown by the green area in the following chart, then became the only strain they detected in the patient. This changed when the CP wore off, but the same phenomenon was seen again when they tried CP again some time later.


Screenshot 2020-12-21 at 13.37.47.png
 
Inner Sydney Northern Beaches had a little community outbreak. So boarder control and quarantine back in force. People are a bit upset because of Xmas plans being halted but...

*New South Wales has recorded another drop in the daily number of coronavirus cases, sources say.

7NEWS understands there were 8 new cases of community transmission in the 24 hours to 8pm Monday night. There are 10 cases in overseas returned travellers.

This comes on the back of 15 new cases reported from a record 38,000 test results the day before.

So queensland have the hard border back between nsw and Victoria.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian will make that announcement on Wednesday morning which you can watch live here.

 
WA already closed the border to NSW. Our glorious leader Mark McGowan was quick to react as ever! I have a little bit of a crush on him, so it was quite funny to find out yesterday that he got married the day after me, 24 years ago. :D Life here is still pretty normal, and the weather is glorious. In fact my mum told me to knock it off putting up beach photos on fb, as it was too annoying.:D We are watching the UK news with utter horror and despair, but no little surprise that Boris has managed to fuck everything up so monumentally. Also found out my cousin and her son have Covid. She is a healthcare manager in NI who has been WFH since March and been very careful, but her son brought it back from uni. We are just hoping no-one brought it in from the Sydney outbreak before they shut the border. These are yesterday's stats.
 

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Colleague in Toronto (well, just outside it) has been told they're on lockdown now - 6000+ cases reported in Canada compared to 33k here. So much more on-the-ball....
 
For slavish adherents of herd immunity...
As of November 1, 2020, the nationwide cumulative COVID-19 prevalence (past and current infections relative to the population size) is estimated at 31% (95%-CI 22-50) for Peru, 27% (17–41) for Mexico, 22% (14–34) for Brazil, 12% (7.2-20) for the US, 11% (6.4–18) for the United Kingdom, 8.2% (5.2–15) for France, 7.4% (4.9–13) for Sweden, 4.2% (2.5–6.8) for Canada, 1.8% (1.2–3) for Germany and 0.12% (0.074–0.26) for Japan.
DOI: 10.1101/2020.12.01.20241539v1
 
We've got three variants here in Portugal

A study on the genetic diversity of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus detected three new variants of the virus circulating in the second wave of the covid-19 pandemic in Portugal, one Portuguese advanced today researcher at the Ricardo Jorge National Health Institute (INSA).
 
WA already closed the border to NSW. Our glorious leader Mark McGowan was quick to react as ever! I have a little bit of a crush on him, so it was quite funny to find out yesterday that he got married the day after me, 24 years ago. :D Life here is still pretty normal, and the weather is glorious. In fact my mum told me to knock it off putting up beach photos on fb, as it was too annoying.:D We are watching the UK news with utter horror and despair, but no little surprise that Boris has managed to fuck everything up so monumentally. Also found out my cousin and her son have Covid. She is a healthcare manager in NI who has been WFH since March and been very careful, but her son brought it back from uni. We are just hoping no-one brought it in from the Sydney outbreak before they shut the border. These are yesterday's stats.

Yep, It's like we're experiencing a bit of a parallel universe down here. I'm looking on in shocked disbelief as I see what's happening for europe based urbs. I've even got some survivors guilt going on. First world problem I know , and I won't deny it.

My dad, sister and her husband all live in London and have covid. She's a teacher.
 
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