Good news for vaccine development: Coronavirus has six strains but shows little variation | The Times of India

The findings of the study also shed light on the fact that despite having atleast six prominent mutations, the novel coronavirus did not show a lot of variability. As per the research, the novel coronavirus shows “approximately seven mutations per sample.”

According to a report published in PTI, the low rate of variability (low evolutionary change) signifies that “the treatments we are developing, including a vaccine, might be effective against all the virus strains,” said Federico Giorgi, who is a researcher at University of Bologna, and coordinator of the study.

It should be kept in mind that common influenza has more than double variability rate when compared to the novel coronavirus, which is probably why influenza shots need to be updated every year.