COVID-19 has killed more than 1.5 million people over the past year, and along the way, has mutated into seven major groups, or strains.
The original 2019 strain, the L strain, was detected in China’s Wuhan city. The virus then mutated into the S strain, followed by V and G strains. Strain G mutated into three other strains: GR, GH and GV. Infrequent mutations were listed together as strain O, according to Reuters.
The report notes that “as countries began to close their borders, there were fewer new strains introduced, and in countries where the more resilient G-type strains were present, they began to dominate,” Reuters said.
“This virus moves in superspreader events, which means the virus doesn’t have to be particularly contagious,” said Catherine Bennett, epidemiology chair in the Faculty of Health at Melbourne’s Deakin University. “We will see different patterns because of cluster transmission.”
Source: Reuters December 10, 2020