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The new variant of Covid-19, which recently emerged in the UK and has since spread to Europe, has no impact on the clinical status and the vaccine expected in Morocco, Moroccan virologists said on Monday.
The coronavirus obeys its own dynamics as a living being which lives, adapts and develops under external pressures, Azeddine Ibrahimi, Director of medical biotechnology laboratory at the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy in Rabat.
The virus of reference known worldwide and which appeared in Wuhan, China, underwent a first mutation called D 614 G, he said.
This virus undergoes a new mutation every four days, but without effect, until this new variant, dubbed N 501 Y, appeared, Ibrahimi explained.
The speed of spread of this new variant, which appeared in the United Kingdom, is 70% faster than the previous strain, the scientist noted, adding that this new variant, which emerged last April, «has no impact on the clinical condition of people, because there are, so far, no studies that prove that this variant impacts the mortality rates and clinical conditions».
This new variant also has no impact on the vaccines developed so far. «The fear of the new variant is normal and occurs whenever a mutation appears. In the absence of accurate information, rumors and fake news flourish, especially on social networks», Ibrahimi said.
«To deal with epidemics and pandemics, it is necessary to adopt the worst case scenario», which has led several countries to suspend flights to and from Britain, until more is known about this new variant.
This new variant of coronavirus has not been observed so far in Morocco. This has been confirmed by the analysis of more than 100 genomes during the period of the pandemic, and 32 genomes in December alone, he explained.
For his part, Moulay Mostafa Naji, director of the virology laboratory at The Hassan II-Casablanca University, pointed out that the coronavirus has undergone a total of nine mutations, the latest being the one discovered in Southern UK.
This new variant has a higher reproductive rate of the virus by almost 70%, which means that 5% of those infected could be in a critical state of health, putting greater strain on the health care system, he said.
However, the spread of this new variant in Europe «does not mean that it is more ferocious or deadly, or that it would affect the vaccine that Moroccans are waiting for», Naji said, recalling that the vaccine «remains effective, and even if there was an effect, it would only be slight, and would not exceed 1 to 3%.
He highlighted the vaccine's efficacy rate, which reaches 96%, noting that precautionary measures, such as wearing masks properly, washing hands regularly, and maintaining social distancing, are the only way to protect against the virus until the vaccine arrives, and even after vaccination.
He also called on Moroccans to massively participate in the next vaccination operation to make sure the vaccine is administered to at least 70% of the population to «build a collective immunity that will allow us to end this virus definitively and resume the normal course of our lives».
