Researchers have developed technology which could halve the time it takes to identify Covid-19 variants, amid growing fears over strains spreading in Europe.
The technology, which has been described as “groundbreaking”, is currently being trialled by the NHS and could help quickly spot mutations of Covid-19 – something which takes around four to five days at the moment.
News of the trials comes days after Oxford’s Sir John Bell cautioned that the spread of the South Africa variant in Europe was putting Britain at risk, given that it appeared the vaccines may be less effective in preventing that strain from spreading.
He said the lack of genome sequencing, to track variants, in Europe was very concerning, saying the continent was “hopeless”.
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