Scientists Develop Accurate Test to Detect ‘British’ COVID-19 Variant - Tasnim News Agency

Russian scientists have registered the first testing system to detect the ‘British’ strain of COVID-19.

The news comes from the country’s health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, whose epidemiology research institute developed the kit.

The strain was announced by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson in late December and has now been detected in many other countries, including Russia. At the time, Patrick Vallance, London’s chief scientific adviser, said that the new mutation could spread up to 70 percent faster than the original virus.

“The new test system quickly detects the presence of the mutant strain,” Rospotrebnadzor explained in a statement. “[It] is designed for a maximum concentration of the virus at 106 copies/m. This avoids false-positive results when detecting mutations in samples with very high viral load.”