A strange find: a previously unknown strain of coronavirus has been circulating in the sewage of New York for a year, which no one has been infected with

A group of researchers from New York was looking for a coronavirus in city ​​sewage when she discovered something amazing - viral fragments with a unique set of mutations for a variant of the coronavirus that had never been discovered before. About the mysterious virus reports Deseret News with reference to the New York Times.

Why it matters: this is a potential sign of a new undetected variant COVID-19that hasn't yet infiltrated New York or the country.

On the subject: Faces-neverCOVID: why some people never become infected with coronavirus, despite contact with sick people

Yes, but: the researchers said there was no evidence that the species could pose a risk to humans, as it has been circulating for at least a year.

What is happening: New York researchers published their recent findings in a scientific journal Nature Communications

• They are still not sure where this potential option came from.
• They suspect the variant may come from people infected with the coronavirus but not captured by genome sequencing.
• Varieties may come from animals infected with COVID-19, including rats.

The bigger picture: "I think it's very important that we find the source and not pick up this species," said one of the researchers, John Dennehy, a virologist at Queens College.

• Understanding the different variants of COVID-19 can be an important tool for understanding the virus itself.
• Recent research published on the preprint platform research square before peer review, showed that the omicron variant could be a combination of BA.1 and B.35 varieties.
• While BA.1 is strong enough to represent 4,17% of all COVID-19 cases, the B.35 variant was found in only 0,0019% of the sequences.

The bottom line: while new strains and varieties may emerge, some continue to go unnoticed.