Does anyone else think this mutation was in the north before?

[Granolaslice]

I live in Yorkshire and our rates are now falling but previously they were getting out of control, back in September things were looking very bad here.
My partner works in a school and a few weeks ago when cases were really high here practically the whole school were off at the same time, including many of the senior staff.
I know they’re saying it was only detected in the south east, but I feel sure it’s been circulating up here too.

Unlikely as they reportedly "work up" 10 percent of positives to check the strain so I expect it would have been noticed.

They are retrospectively looking at samples so unless they've not bothered to look at the North then I suspect we'd know already if it had driven numbers there.

One thing I do wonder is whether a similar sort of mutation affecting transmission caused the sudden spike in March. It never quite made sense to be that the virus had been retrospectively identified in the autumn/winter in various countries, yet apparently spread undetected until the shit suddenly hit the fan.

This virus, whichever strain, is a master of transmision.
I think they would have noticed by now if it was up North, but this just keep giving surprises!
It could have been another faster spreading variation.
It is time they stop over-blaming the public for the spread. Yes, true some people do not abide by the rules, but majority are following them. So if it stills spreads is because other reasons. I do seriously think this virus is airborne.

This was reported on Saturday and I would think it's similar for the North West

"Chief medical officer Chris Whitty said during the government's press conference earlier today (Saturday) that the new strain of the virus is being detected in "around five per cent" of coronavirus cases being confirmed in Yorkshire and the Humber."

"There were 8,800 cases recorded in Yorkshire and the Humber in the past seven days, which means that around 440 of those will have been of the new variant"

MushMonster
It's been known for a while that the virus is airborne. There have been numerous studies showing that people in work environments, restaurants, buses, churches etc have caught the virus from airborne particles. One was a restaurant with an air conditioning flow that infected people sat at a table on the other side of the room. It was the direction of the flow of air around the room, not the actual air conditioning if that makes sense.

I’d wondered if that was why the cases had got out of hand in the NW a couple of months ago