New study suggests that coronavirus has mutated into at least 30 different strains

Professor Li Lanjuan carried out the study with his Zhejiang University colleagues in Hangzhou, China. It was published on Sunday in a non-peer reviewed paper.

The results show that the virus's ability to mutate has been greatly underestimated by medical officials. It says that different parts of the world are being affected by different strains of the virus, potentially meaning it may be difficult to find a cure that is effective on the whole virus.

Researchers chose 11 Hangzhou coronavirus patients at random and analyzed the strains. They worked to see how efficiently they could kill the virus cells.

The researchers detected over 30 different mutations, including 19 previously undiscovered ones.

In the paper, Li wrote, “Sars-CoV-2 has acquired mutations capable of substantially changing its pathogenicity.”

Li and his team detected more aggressive strains of the virus that had the ability to produce 270 times as much viral load as weak strains. The aggressive strains were able to kill off human cells the fastest.

They reported that the “true diversity” of the strains is not emphasized enough and has to be better understood so a vaccine or treatment can be produced.

“Drug and vaccine development, while urgent, need to take the impact of these accumulating mutations, especially the founding mutations, into account to avoid potential pitfall,” wrote the authors.

There are currently around 38,413 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Canada and 1,834 deaths. Roughly 13,179 recoveries have been made and almost 600,000 individuals have been tested.