An infection by a coronavirus belonging to the same family of that responsible for the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) has been reported in the United Kingdom. A 49 years old man from Qatari with a travel history to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been admitted to an intensive care unit in Doha, Qatar, on 7 September, with symptoms of acute respiratory syndrome with renal failure. He has been transferred to the UK on 11 September, where the Health Protection Agency confirmed the presence of a novel coronavirus, whose sequence was 99.5% similar to that responsible of a previous fatal case reported earlier this year in a 60 year-old Saudi national.
Given that coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that can cause different kinds of diseases, from the common cold to the SARS, WHO is currently trying to gather further information about these two cases and did not recommended any travel restrictions.
A new coronavirus found in UK
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We cannot archive Covid-19 yet
Coexistence with Covid-19 cannot yet be said to be stable, especially due to the great variability of SARS-CoV-2. For this reason, as the number of cases in Italy is increasing, it is necessary to limit the impact of infections by acting on two fronts, which are not alternatives to each other: reduce the share of people who have become partially susceptible and limit the likelihood of the emergence of new variants.
Image credits: Prasesh Shiwakoti (Lomash)/Unsplash
Several attempts have been made to archive Covid-19, trying to leave behind an experience worthy of the worst dystopian novel (about 770 million officially registered cases worldwide and an estimated 18 million deaths), but it seems that the anticipated "coexistence" with the family of viruses has not yet stabilized, and it will take several years to get there.