MUTATIONS in the coronavirus could have an affect on immunisation, Wales' Chief Scientific Adviser has warned.

Dr Rob Orford said that new variants of coronavirus identified in South Africa and Brazil are being "closely monitored", alongside the new variant first seen in the south east of England.

To date there have been 10 cases of the South African variant identified in Wales – all of which have been imported from people who have travelled abroad.

These new variants pose new challenges for Wales because of their potential to alter the course of the pandemic by speeding up the rate of transmission and quickly increasing the number of people infected, Dr Orford said.

He said: "A concern is that a new variant could emerge which won’t respond to our treatments or vaccines – putting us back to where we began."

Mutations can also change the way the virus interacts with the immune system, including the response generated by a vaccine.

He said they are paying particular attention to mutations in the gene that encodes the Spike protein, which is associated with viral entry into cells and is relevant to immunity and vaccine efficacy.

However, Dr Orford says experts have a "very good handle" on the variant that's dominating in Wales at the moment - known as the 'Kent variant' due to where it was first identified.

He said despite reports that the Kent strain is more deadly, there remains insufficient evidence to confirm that is the case.

"What we can say at this stage is that this new strain is more contagious and travels very quickly, causing more people to catch coronavirus, which in turn may put the health system under more strain," Dr Orford said.

"Since it emerged, it has quickly spread across Wales becoming the dominant strain in most parts of the country."