recent study identified a new coronavirus strain that has the potential to become a variant of concern — like the alpha, beta and delta variants, which have slammed countries around the world with heavy waves of new COVID-19 infections and deaths.
The newest strain, dubbed C.1.2, comes from the same lineage as the beta variant from South Africa, according to the study, and was first identified in May 2021.
Researchers noted that it was "unexpected" to see a mutation so soon after the discovery of the original strain, C.1, back in January, but sampling and genome sequencing found that the C.1.2 variant "had mutated substantially." C.1.2 has an extremely high rate of mutation, according to the study.