World News – USA – No need for stricter rules for returning travelers after Australia registers two cases of new virus strain

A new, possibly highly transmissible strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus discovered in the hotel quarantine in NSW is cause for concern. Experts predict that it will continue to spread around the world.

But the chief medical officer, Professor Paul Kelly, who was appointed to the role on Monday, said there was no need to put stricter measures in place on returning travelers.

Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly said Monday there was no need to prevent people from England from returning to Australia. Photo credit: Alex Ellinghausen

« Anyone who is from the UK is in a 14-day hotel quarantine and there is no risk as this quarantine works as successfully as it has been here in Australia for the most part from the start, » he said.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson tightened restrictions over the weekend by forcing non-essential stores to close and budget lockdowns to prevent the virus from spreading further.

The new strain, named B117, is responsible for more than 60 percent of COVID-19 infections in London. UK Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty said the burden « beat everyone else in terms of transmission ». .

Professor Edward Holmes, a virologist at the University of Sydney, said the evidence for the new strain is worrying.

« This new variant of the virus called B117 is clearly a cause for concern, » he said. ‘In the UK it is spreading faster than other variants and contains key mutations, particularly in the virus receptor domain, which have already been shown to increase infectivity in the laboratory. « 

On Monday, Dr. Kerry Chant, NSW’s chief health officer, said genetic sequencing revealed that two people in hotel quarantine had the new British strain.

Professor Holmes said that while these cases weren’t in the community, it showed that health officials around the world had to be on guard in order to spread.

« That this variant was recently discovered in returning travelers in quarantine in Australia – although this is mostly not the case in the community – shows that it is moving globally and is likely to spread to other countries if it has not already done so happened.  » he said.

Epidemiologist John Kaldor, head of the research group on public health interventions at UNSW’s Kirby Institute, said it was very difficult to definitively estimate how much more transmissible one strain of virus is from another strain.

« We must still be on high alert in Australia no matter what we feel is a burden, » he said. « We know the burden we have is bad enough in terms of portability. « 

Professor Kaldor said further restrictions on returning travelers would be extreme as Australia has already taken an « aggressive approach » to preventing the virus from spreading, including 14-day hotel quarantine.

« It’s a really important reminder, not only to health officials but also to the public, that this virus is not over, » he said.

More detailed studies of the strain were ongoing and Professor Holmes said it would not be possible to draw precise conclusions until they were complete, but the UK government made the right call by responding quickly.

« The evidence available for improved portability suggests that the UK government has rightly tried to contain its spread as robustly as possible, » he said.

Rachel Clun is a federal political reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age specializing in health.

Coronavirus, Australia, UK, strain, mutation