SINGAPORE - An increasingly common mutation of the novel coronavirus found in Europe, North America and parts of Asia may be more infectious but appears less deadly, according to a prominent infectious diseases doctor.
"Maybe that's a good thing to have a virus that is more infectious but less deadly," Tambyah told Reuters."It is in the virus' interest to infect more people but not to kill them because a virus depends on the host for food and for shelter," he said. On Sunday, Malaysia's director-general of health Noor Hisham Abdullah urged greater public vigilance after authorities detected what they believe was the D614G mutation of the coronavirus in two recent clusters.
Malaysia's Noor Hisham said the D614G strain detected there was 10 times more infectious and that vaccines currently in development may not be effective against this mutation.