Scientists discover the ‘most mutated Covid variant ever’ lurking in a patient in Indonesia

A Covid variant seen in Indonesia may be the most mutated version of the virus ever recorded, scientists think.

The morphed version of Delta – collected from a Pap smear from a patient in Jakarta – has 113 unique mutations.

Thirty-seven of the changes affect the spike protein, which the coronavirus uses to attach itself to humans.

In comparison, Omicron has about 50 mutations.

Virus trackers waved the unnamed species as the “most extreme” they’ve ever seen.

But there is no evidence that it will take off. And even if it did, top experts argue it wouldn’t force the world to need any form of lockdown.

The new virus, submitted to a global Covid genomics database in early July, is believed to have emerged from a case of chronic infection.

This is where, instead of beating the virus in a few weeks, a single patient ends up with a long-term infection that can last for months

So-called chronic infections usually occur in patients with compromised immune systems, such as those with AIDS or undergoing chemotherapy for cancer, which makes them less able to successfully fight the virus.

Such infections worry scientists because it creates the perfect conditions for Covid to mutate, potentially allowing it to sneak past the body’s defenses.

This could, in theory, create a strain better able to evade the body’s natural immunity, or that of Covid jabs.

Mutations on the spike protein, such as those on the newly observed strain, are the ones of most concern to experts.

This is because Covid vaccines are based on this part of the virus.

Professor Lawrence Young, a virologist at the University of Warwick, said it was unclear whether the newly discovered strain had the potential to go ahead and infect others.

And he said it would have to beat other variants in circulation, such as descendants of Omicron, to become established.

But he added that the biggest fear is that a new variant like this will emerge quietly.

Countries such as Britain have scaled back the amount of genetic analysis as the pandemic fades into the background.

“This virus continues to surprise us and being complacent is dangerous,” Professor Young said.

This highlights the problem of “living with the virus”.

“As the virus spreads and continues to mutate, it will inevitably lead to severe infections in the most vulnerable and will also increase the burden of the long-term consequences of infection.”

He said a lack of genetic surveillance to pick up emerging variants that could be resistant to established immunity blinded the world to emerging threats.

He added: “How do we know if new outbreaks of Covid are due to a new and potentially more dangerous variant?”

Professor Ian Jones, a virologist at the University of Reading, claimed the new variant was ‘unusually mutated’.

While Covid mutates all the time, he said chronic infections have increased its potential to encourage it to better adapt to infiltrate the human immune system.

“The concern about chronic infections is that the virus mutates in a person who has already generated immunity,” he said.

“In other words, the virus must almost have mutations that can escape that immunity.”

But he added that such extensive mutation often came at the expense of the virus itself.

An analysis by the Office of National Statistics has calculated how much of each Covid wave has infected the population of England. The last, Omicron BA.4/5, was the largest, infecting 46.3 percent of the population. Individuals may appear twice in the data, for example having contracted Covid once at the start of the pandemic and then again during the Omicron peak

“Such mutations are often offset by ‘fitness costs’, which means that the virus generally does not grow well and that the risk of such a virus is generally low.”

Professor Jones added that while such samples provided an interesting picture of how the virus evolved, they were of limited use in establishing their threat to society.

He added that rather than the strange supermutant strain, we should be more concerned about a sudden surge in cases of any type of Covid.

“What you’re really looking for isn’t the odd, odd sequence here and there, but a rapid rise in the frequency of a particular sequence that suggests it’s gaining a foothold,” he said.

‘Until then, all alarm bells should not go off.’

Details about the patient from whom the sample was taken, their current health, age and gender have not been disclosed.

The strain was originally flagged by online Covid variant tracker Ryan Hisner before being flagged by University of Missouri American virologist Marc Johnson.

Many countries, including the UK, have scaled back their Covid analysis from the heyday of the pandemic.

Scientists have warned that this blinds the nation to any changes in how the virus spreads and which variants are growing.

The latest technical briefing on Covid in the UK, released in April, said data suggested cases were stabilizing with a slow decline in hospital admissions.

That document, released by the UK Health Security Agency, also said there were several variants of Omicron descendants in circulation.

However, UKHSA noted that the scaling back of community surveillance meant that the data was not fully representative of reality.

The Delta version of Covid, which caused a massive global surge in cases and deaths in 2021, has been largely forgotten.

It has been surpassed by the relatively milder Omicron type and its range of offspring.