The Omicron has not faded away from the world yet, and there are warnings of a much deadlier variant from the place where it all started, Wuhan. The new variant called ‘NeoCov’ is creating a buzz amongst the scientific community in Wuhan in China.
The variant may turn out to be deadlier than the original variant, and highly transmissible as well. As per the paper that was published on the bioRxiv website, the scientists have clarified that NeoCov is related to the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome also known as MERS-Coronavirus.
This virus was discovered in a bat population in South Africa. It is currently being spread only amongst animals. The scientists have further added that it is now been found that the variant NeoCov and PDF-2180-Cov have been using some type of angiotensin-converting enzyme which is inclusive of the bat ACE2 and human ACE2 for entry. The MERS-Cov is almost similar to the SARS-CoV as far as the symptoms such as fever, cough, and shortness of breath are concerned. The virus was prevalent in the middle east countries back in 2012 and 2015 as well. A lot of people have died due to infection from the virus.
As per the research, MERS-CoV belongs to the lineage of Beta-CoV that is also known as Merbecoviruses and they pose a great threat as the fatality rate amongst the infectious is almost 35 percent. According to the study posted by the scientists, demonstrations have been done about the first case of ACE2 usage in MERS related viruses, and it has also shed light on a potential bio-safety threat of the emergence in humans of an ACE2 using the MERS-CoV-2 with both the high fatality rate and the high transmission rate.
The researchers have also stated that the immunity that is triggered by the prior infections or the vaccination of other coronaviruses might be ineffective against the latest NeoCoV and PDF-2180-CoV infections. As per the researchers from Wuhan University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Biophysics, the new variant requires only mutation to spread to the human cells. The World Health Organization has not released an official statement regarding the same but has warned the people of the next variant which will be more contagious than the Omicron.