New Coronavirus Strain Causes More Infections, Persists Even After Two-Week Incubation Period

The newly found strain of coronavirus is more infectious than its previous version, however, the severity of disease remains the same. This new strain of novel coronavirus is spreading from Europe to the U.S.

The details of the new strain of coronavirus have been published in the journal Cell. However, the details were first published in a media report before.

The new strain has been dubbed “G614,” while the previous one was called D614. According to the researchers, the new strain of novel coronavirus is now the dominant one in infecting people.

The researchers further added that the new strain of the virus is more infectious than the previous one. However, the disease severity looks to remain the same. That is, the new strain of coronavirus is not making people sicker than its predecessor.

"Our global tracking data show that the G614 variant in Spike has spread faster than D614," the study reports. "We interpret this to mean that the virus is likely to be more infectious. Interestingly, we did not find evidence of G614 impact on disease severity."

According to Erica Ollmann Saphire, a researcher at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology who was a part of the study, confirmed that the new version of novel coronavirus is now dominant and is spreading among people.

The researchers further added that by March 01, the G614 version of the virus was rarely outside Europe. However, by the end of the month, the virus had increased in frequency worldwide.

"The increase in G614 frequency often continues well after stay-at-home orders are in place and past the subsequent two-week incubation period," the researchers note.

There has been a resurgence in the number of coronavirus cases in the U.S. after several states decided to reopen despite them not meeting any of the criteria laid down by the White House for planned reopening.

According to the White House guidelines, the state should either observe a two-week decline in their share of the number of positive coronavirus tests or a two-week decrease in new cases before they reopen completely.

The U.S. has been reporting almost or more than 50,000 new cases of coronavirus infections daily since the last few days.