Despite the fact that SARS-CoV-2 has only 15 genes, it is constantly mutating. Most of these changes are not
The authors of the new work initially analyzedgenomes of 150 strains of SARS-CoV-2. They classified outbreaks into stages: index (no outbreak), rise, exponential rise and fall. The ease of transmission of a virus is determined by the R value, or reproductive number, where R is the average number of new infections caused by each infected person.
They combined all this information into a metric calledcalled GENI for pathogen genome identification. Comparison of GENI indicators with the epidemic phase showed that the increase in genetic variation occurred just before the increase in incidence.
When, at the end of March, the British governmentintroduced a lockdown, the number of new cases stabilized, but mutations continued to grow. This shows that measures such as banning gatherings and social distancing are effective in controlling the spread of the disease amid the rapid evolution of the virus.
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