Sri Lanka: New and more potent strain of coronavirus detected in Sri Lanka – “The variant can stay airborne for almost an hour and is spreading quick”

A brand new coronavirus variant that’s airborne and stronger than all those discovered beforehand in Sri Lanka has been found within the island nation, an immunologist has said in Colombo.  More...

Genomics and epidemiology of a novel SARS-CoV-2 lineage in Manaus, Brazil P1 coronavirus

Through genome sequencing of viruses sampled in Manaus between November 2020 and January 2021, we identified the emergence and circulation of a novel SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern, lineage P.1, that acquired 17 mutations, including a trio in the spike protein (K417T, E484K and N501Y) associated with increased binding to the human ACE2 receptor.  More...