Work ongoing to track Bristol COVID mutation
Enhanced contact tracing is underway and more testing could be brought in
Last updated 5th Feb 2021
Health officials are continuing to work at pace to learn everything they can about a new coronavirus mutation discovered in Bristol.
On Tuesday (02/02) it was revealed 11 cases of a "variant of concern" have been discovered here.
It has been called E484K and is a mutation of the new variant originally discovered in Kent.
It has previously been revealed the Kent variant is up to 70 percent more transmissible than the original COVID-19 strain, but this mutation is not thought to make it even more so.
Bristol's Public Health Director Christina Gray insists there is no cause for alarm.
"These cases have been picked up as part of a routine sampling that goes on all the time," she says.
"This little cluster of cases with the mutation of interest has been picked up as part of that, so the good news is our surveillance systems work and work very well."
Work is now beginning on enhanced contact tracing to establish where else the mutation might have spread to.
This will include going back to those people involved and re-interviewing them about where they have been, who they have seen and how they might have picked up the virus.
Where in Bristol are the cases?
There have been calls for officials to reveal exactly where in Bristol the cases have been found, but Christina tells us to do so would not be appropriate.
"This is a very small handful of case," she says.
"They're sprinkled all over, so there is not one singular area, they are sprinkled over quite a wide area, and I guess we need to reflect that what is important is people have confidence in the public health system.
"One of the biggest challenges we have is that if people lose confidence in coming forward to take a test, if people think their personal information is not going to be held and used appropriately, actually that erodes confidence and it stops people coming forward and it really impedes the public health effort.
"I wouldn't want my postcode be identified if it was me, that's not appropriate."
She adds however, if all the cases were clustered together in one area then that would be a different matter.
What is happening now?
The mutation was identified when scientists tested the genomic sequence of the virus found in each of these 11 cases.
Such genomic testing is standard practice and is being carried out on a regular basis across the UK, but in comparison to standard coronavirus testing, not on a large scale.
Now that this mutation has been found in Bristol, the amount of genomic testing here will be stepped up to try and establish if it has spread any further.
On top of that, as already mentioned enhanced contact tracing is taking place to try and establish both the source (or sources) of the mutation and its potential ongoing spread.
It has also been suggested further standard testing could be introduced, perhaps door to door and including of asymptomatic people, but as things stand there is no plan to introduce such a policy.
"The question about how, or whether additional testing would support that (enhanced contact tracing) just needs a bit more consideration," Christina tells us.
"That's already under discussion and we will be looking at that over the next few days.
"Also PHE (Public Health England) who have a national view on this will be getting information from elsewhere in the country, so we will be looking at best practice elsewhere, what might be useful for us and then advised accordingly."
Door to door testing is already being carried out elsewhere including in parts of Kent, but that is in relation to the South African variant of the virus and not this Bristol mutation, which has also been found in Liverpool.
What should we be doing?
Speaking in a press conference on Wednesday (03/02), Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees said the current lockdown rules of staying at home except for essential reasons continue to apply.
"Among the single most important things we can do as individuals is to continue with the hand washing, the face covering and the social distancing," he said.
Christina Gray says it is important we all remain calm.
"We are in a year where we are rolling out the vaccine, because global science has come together and produced a vaccine within a year...I think that is probably unheard of in human history," she says.
"We can also be confident in our scientists.
"The reason this surveillance activity is going on is so they can keep ahead of the virus, and they are used to doing this.
"For HIV, retroviral drugs, the flu vaccine, the scientists are constantly working with mutations on the virus and adapting the vaccine to ensure it is still effective.
"So the message is we have a fantastic scientific community, we need to applaud them, we need to keep investing in them.
"We must be confident in them".