A new study carried out by researchers at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China, finds that COVID-19 has mutated into at least 30 different variations, and that the ability of the novel coronavirus to mutate has been underestimated.

The study, which was led by Professor Li Lanjuan and published on the website medRxiv.org on Sunday, analyzed the strains of the coronavirus that had infected 11 patients from Hangzhou, where there are at least 1,264 reported cases of the illness.

Researchers found that there were many more mutations within the small sample pool than had previously been reported. Within the sample, officials detected more than 30 mutations, around 60% of which were new.