“Worrying” new COVID-19 strain has been identified in France with 46 mutations that may be more resistant against vaccines.

Iran PressEurope: The Sars-CoV-2 virus that causes the coronavirus disease is constantly evolving in ways that make it more transmissible and enable it to infect people who should have immunity. New variants of the virus show a genetic change that differs from the original sequence when COVID-19 was identified - triggering concerns among global health experts.

A new COVID-19 strain appears to have been found in France, which has 46 mutations, which is believed to render it more transmittable and vaccine-resistant, according to a paper posted on medRxiv, which has yet to be peer-reviewed, according to Sputnik.

The coronavirus variant, dubbed B.1.640.2., was first discovered by scientists at the Méditerranée Infection University Hospital Institute (IHU) on 10 December last year. They had announced on Twitter that they had detected the new strain in patients from Forcalquier in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence region.

A cluster of 12 cases of a variant of “atypical combination” has been confirmed near the Marseilles area, with reports suggesting that many of those patients required hospitalization.

According to the paper, the “index case” was a fully-vaccinated man who had returned from a trip to Cameroon in November. Three days later, he is said to have tested positive for the coronavirus, developing “mild respiratory symptoms.”

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