Experts are concerned over a new Covid variant discovered in the south of France. The coronavirus strain has been confirmed in 12 patients in the region of Marsielle, according to a pre-print paper on the new variant.
Known as IHU or B.1.640, the variant has already been defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as a “variant under monitoring”.
This is because the strain is believed to contain 46 mutations, which may mean it is more infectious or could evade existing vaccine protection as well as natural immunity from being infected by previous variants such as Delta or even Omicron.While there is little data on 'IHU', is the new variant something we should be worried about?Here is everything we know so far.The French variant - or