Scientists researching the new variant of coronavirus say they have no proof it is more infectious in children.
Professor Neil Ferguson, a SAGE adviser and Imperial College epidemiologist, said yesterday there is a hint that it has a higher propensity to infect children .
But members of COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) today said they are not familiar with any data to suggest this might be the case.
COG-UK has examined the genetics of more than 160,000 cases of coronavirus in the UK and is constantly watching how the virus evolves to see whether any of the mutations are important, as this one named VUI-202012/1 has become.
Britain s Covid outbreak continues to worsen with another 33,364 case and 215 more deaths
Data shows daily infections have risen 64.7% in a week, with today s figure up from the 20,263 last Monday
Deaths are still stable, however, with today s fatality count being 7.3 per cent down on last week s 232
It comes amid fears swathes of Sussex and Hampshire could be next to be hit with Tier Four restrictions
Children may be more at-risk of catching the new mutated coronavirus variant than any previous strains, Government advisers today claimed.
Professor Neil Ferguson, an epidemiologist of Imperial College London and member of No10 s advisory group NERVTAG, said there was a hint children - who have barely been affected by the pandemic so far - were more susceptible to the mutation.
The academic, known as Professor Lockdown , was instrumental in the UK s March restrictions but stepped down from his advisory position on SAGE after he flaunted the guidance he helped implement to visit his married lover.
He said it is possible the surge of the new variant, called B.1.1.7, during the November lockdown which occurred in school term-time could have happened because the variant is better at infecting children than past SARS-CoV-2 iterations.