[theold]

One was that the population’s immunity to infection would have waned over the six months since the last flare-up around Christmastime; another was colder weather keeping more Kiwis indoors.

“Some of the mutations in these new variants are involved with immune evasion, and some are probably associated with binding to cells,” ESR’s genomics and bioinformatics science leader Dr David Winter said.

“Those are two things the virus has got to do to infect us.”

“It looks like the whole country is going to be very exposed to this virus over the next few weeks,” he said.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/tricky-new...PF46GRW2I/