According to the World Health Organisation, all viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, that causes COVID-19, change, but only some deviations affect their properties, such as the speed with which it spreads, the associated severity of disease, and the effectiveness of vaccines. The Delta variant, detected a year ago, is now dominant across the globe.

A new COVID-19 variant with an “extremely high” number of mutations in the spike protein has alarmed scientists due to its potential to dodge antibodies that can fight the virus.

The B.1.1.529 strain is described as an offshoot of an earlier variant called B.1.1 and has 32 spike mutations. In comparison, the Delta variant that is currently dominant across the world has 16. The spike protein is the part of the virus that most existing coronavirus vaccines use to enable the immune system to fight the infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV