WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE . . .

. . . between a strain and a variant?

MUCH has been said about the new mutated Covid viruses currently in circulation. But experts stress that they aren’t new strains of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, but variants.

Viruses are divided into various families and then subtypes based on the illness they cause, their structure and how they behave. The virus that causes Covid-19 is a strain of coronavirus.

All viruses evolve, developing slight differences in genetic make-up. If these differences are significant and prevalent enough, they’ll be identified as a new variant of that strain. Only very significant changes would merit them being classified as a new strain.