There’s a new coronavirus variant spreading across Europe, researchers say

Researchers from Spain and Switzerland said recently that a new variant of the novel coronavirus has begun to spread across Europe, leading to a spike in several countries.

• The new variant — called 20A.EU1 — originally started to spread in Spain back in June.
• The variant has been recorded at frequencies above 40% in Spain in July.
• The new variant has increased in its spread. It first appeared in low values before July in Switzerland, Ireland and the United Kingdom. Now, it has been found in 40% to 70% of cases, the researchers said.
• Norway, Latvia, the Netherlands and France have all seen this variant, too.

The researchers said this variant of the coronavirus has accounted for the majority of cases of COVID-19 in recent months, according to Business Insider.

• “This variant, 20A.EU1, and a second variant 20A.EU2 ... account for the majority of recent sequences in Europe,” the scientists said.

However, the researchers said there is no evidence the new variant spreads faster than other variants of the virus, CNBC reports.

• There also isn’t any data that explains the severity of the disease from this variant. Other coronavirus variants have spread across the world. This one hasn’t made its way everywhere.

The takeaway:

Governments will want to consider this new data when they’re deciding how they should allow people to travel across Europe, according to Business Insider.