In early December, COVID-19 cases started going up in Kent in the UK. Researchers with the COIVD-19 Genomics Consortium in the UK started looking toward mutations in the virus for clues as to what was happening.
"For SARS-CoV-2, these mutations—the small errors made naturally when genomes are copied—develop at a steady pace of one or two each month, says Loman, a professor of microbial genomics and bioinformatics at the University of Birmingham. Yet among the Kent cases, scientists found a large cluster that was remarkably different, with a total of 23 mutations arising without prior notice and faster than anyone expected."
