Scientists find almost 200 recurrent genetic mutations that may hold clues to how the virus is adapting and so help develop drugs and vaccines
London — A genetic analysis of samples from more than 7,500 people infected with Covid-19 suggests the new coronavirus spread quickly around the world late last year and is adapting to its human hosts, scientists said on Wednesday.
François Balloux, a UCL professor who co-led the research, said results show that a large proportion of the global genetic diversity of SARS-CoV-2 is found in all the hardest-hit countries. This suggests that the virus was already being transmitted extensively around the globe from early on in the epidemic.
More than 3.7-million people have been reported to be infected by the new coronavirus globally and 258,000 have died. Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since cases were first identified in China in December 2019., confirm that the virus emerged in late 2019, Balloux said, before quickly spreading across the globe.Balloux’s team screened the genomes of more than 7,500 viruses from infected patients around the world.
A study by French scientists published earlier this week found a man there was infected with Covid-19 as early as December 27, nearly a month before France confirmed its first cases.
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