British chief science adviser, Patrick Vallance, said the “virus has taken off” after being observed for months. “When the virus changes its method of attack we as a country have to change our method of defense,” he said. The scientists said that the new variant was spreading rapidly, suggesting that it was more infectious, more easily transmitted. The prevalence of the new mutation was discovered by U.K. Covid-19 Genomics Consortium, which operates government and university laboratories in Britain to track changes to the virus. On Saturday, the chief science adviser updated the changes to the virus, saying there were 23 different mutations.

Source: Washington Post December 19, 2020 16:00 UTC