{"id":113868,"date":"2021-04-28T15:22:37","date_gmt":"2021-04-28T22:22:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=113868"},"modified":"2021-04-28T15:22:37","modified_gmt":"2021-04-28T22:22:37","slug":"covid-19-strain-responsible-for-current-outbreak-in-sri-lanka-confirmed-as-uk-variant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/04\/28\/covid-19-strain-responsible-for-current-outbreak-in-sri-lanka-confirmed-as-uk-variant\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19 strain responsible for current outbreak in Sri Lanka confirmed as UK variant"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Courtesy Adaderana<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>Mutations specific to UK variant of SARS-CoV-2 (B.1.1.7) have been detected in Sri Lanka, says Dr. Chandima Jeewandara, Director of Allergy, Immunity and Cell Biology Unit of Sri Jayewardenepura University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u0dc1\u0dca\u200d\u0dbb\u0dd3 \u0dbd\u0d82\u0d9a\u0dcf\u0dc0\u0dda  \u0db4\u0dd0\u0dad\u0dd2\u0dbb \u0dba\u0db1 \u0d9a\u0ddc\u0dc0\u0dd2\u0da9\u0dca \u0db4\u0dca\u200d\u0dbb\u0db7\u0dda\u0daf\u0dba \u0d9c\u0dd0\u0db1 \u0d85\u0db1\u0dcf\u0dc0\u0dbb\u0dab\u0dba\u0d9a\u0dca...\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZUOZw7icQng?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Addressing during a special media briefing on Wednesday (April 28), he said the mutations were discovered in the samples obtained from Colombo, Boralesgamuwa and Kurunegala areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This confirms that B.1.1.7 is the currently circulating strain in Sri Lanka, responsible for the ongoing massive outbreak, Dr. Jeewandara noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Speaking further, he explained that this variant has a 50% increase in transmissibility and 55% increase in death as opposed to other variants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine which is currently being rolled out in the country is effective against the B.1.1.7 variant, he stated on a more positive note.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This highly contagious variant, which was first found in Kent of southern England last December, is also dominating the virus transmissions across Europe and North America at present.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Courtesy Adaderana Mutations specific to UK variant of SARS-CoV-2 (B.1.1.7) have been detected in Sri Lanka, says Dr. Chandima Jeewandara, Director of Allergy, Immunity and Cell Biology Unit of Sri Jayewardenepura University. Addressing during a special media briefing on Wednesday (April 28), he said the mutations were discovered in the samples obtained from Colombo, Boralesgamuwa [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113868\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}