Inside the farmer disquiet at Delhi’s doorstepOn Dec. 8, the group, known as the Covid-19 Genomics UK Consortium, found a new variant of the virus, with 23 mutations, in a sample taken from a patient in Kent, near the center of the outbreak in late September.
They found the same variant in someone tested in London a day later.Some of the new mutations had the potential to increase the transmissibility of the virus.“The coming together of the genome data and details of an outbreak in Kent led to the key connection," said Sharon Peacock, the University of Cambridge microbiologist who leads the genomics team.
She said in an email that it was the scientists’ “light bulb moment."New information continued to flow in and the British government.