Experts are concerned a year of research could become useless after a new strain of the COVID-19 virus has been confirmed. 

The new strain is not known to create any difference to the severity of coronavirus but is more contagious.

Dr Ian Norton, founder and managing director of Respond Global, said experts were expecting a mutation of the initial virus could happen.

“The virus is very smart and it will try over time … to increase its advantage,” he said.

“What I’m worried about, really, is at what stage do we get a mutation that makes one or several of the vaccines less useful?

“It’s a race to get the vaccine up and running fast enough so that large populations are immune and that all variants die.”

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