FRANCE —  Scientists in France have identified a potentially worrying new COVID-19 variant, IHU, which reportedly has 46 mutations.

According to an article published by The Independent, IHU – the new B.1.640.2 variant, has so far infected 12 people living in southeastern France.

Researchers, in a paper published on medRxiv, said that the first case was linked to a person with a travel history to Cameroon, western Africa.

However, experts were quick to announce that just because a new variant had been discovered, that did not necessarily mean IHU will prove as infectious as other strains, including Omicron.

 ”The genomes were obtained by next-generation sequencing. The authors of the paper claimed that the person who was identified with the IHU variant was fully-vaccinated. The person tested positive for COVID after returning from a three-day trip to Cameroon,” the article said.

The authors of the research paper also note that “subsequent detection… of three mutations in the spike gene to screen for variants… did not correspond to the pattern of the Delta variant involved in almost all SARS-CoV-2 infections at that time”.

Arguing that the emergence of the new variant emphasised the importance of “genomic surveillance”, the authors said their observations once again showed the “unpredictability of the emergence of new SARS-CoV-2 variants”.

Epidemiologist and a fellow at Federation of American Scientists, Eric Feigl-Ding said the new variant was being monitored to evaluate how infectious or dangerous it could prove to be.

“There are scores of new variants discovered all the time, but it does not necessarily mean they will be more dangerous.

“What makes a variant more well-known and dangerous is its ability to multiply because of the number of mutations it has in relation to the original virus.”

He added: “This is when it becomes a ‘variant of concern’ – like Omicron, which is more contagious and more past immunity evasive. It remains to be seen in which category this new variant will fall.”

According to Bloomberg.com, the World Health Organization (WHO)  said the coronavirus variant found in France hasn’t become much of a threat since it was first identified in November.

The variant “has been on our radar,” Abdi Mahamud, a WHO incident manager on COVID said at a press briefing in Geneva on Tuesday. “That virus had a lot of chances to pick up.”

The WHO monitors multiple variants, and when it finds one may pose a significant risk, it declares it a “variant of concern.” This one is only under investigation.