Matthew Bashton News Today

By Matthew Bashton, Northumbria University, Newcastle and Darren Smith, Northumbria University, NewcastleNo sooner than you thought all the talk of new COVID variants was over, theres news of yet another one: AY.4.2. But what is it, where did it come from, and should we be concerned?AY.4.2 is what...

By Matthew Bashton and Darren Smith, for The Conversation, No sooner than you thought all the talk of new Covid variants was over, there’s news of yet another one: AY.4.2. But what is it, where did it come from, and should we be concerned?

One of the Governments largest Covid surveillance programmes spotted AY.4.2 in 303 of 315 local authorities in the fortnight to October 16. In the previous week it was not in two dozen areas.