WASHINGTON : Recently a Johns Hopkins School of Medicine study found that although two SARS-CoV-2 variants are associated with the higher transmission, patients with these variants show no evidence of higher viral loads in their upper respiratory tracts compared to the control group.
The emergence and higher transmission of the evolving variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, has been concerning.
The researchers investigated B.1.1.7, the variant first identified in the UK, and B.1.351, the variant first identified in South Africa, to evaluate if patients showed higher viral loads, and consequently increased shedding and transmissibility.