Vietnam detects hybrid of Indian and UK COVID-19 variants

Authorities in Vietnam have detected a brand new coronavirus variant that may be a mixture of the Indian and UK COVID-19 variants and spreads shortly by air, the well being minister stated on Saturday.

After efficiently containing the virus for many of final yr, Vietnam is grappling with a spike in infections since late April that accounts for greater than half of the overall 6,713 registered instances. Up to now, there have been 47 deaths.

“Vietnam has uncovered a brand new COVID-19 variant combining traits of the 2 present variants first present in India and the UK,” Well being Minister Nguyen Thanh Lengthy stated in an announcement.

“The brand new variant may be very harmful,” he added.

The Southeast Asian nation had beforehand detected seven virus variants: B.1.222, B.1.619, D614G, B.1.1.7 – referred to as the UK variant, B.1.351, A.23.1 and B.1.617.2 – the “Indian variant”.

On-line newspaper VnExpress stated Lengthy had described the brand new variant as a hybrid of the Indian and UK variants.

“The brand new one is an Indian variant with mutations that initially belong to the UK variant,” Lengthy was quoted as saying, including that authorities would quickly announce the identify and detailed traits of the newly found variant.

The World Well being Group (WHO) has recognized 4 variants of SARS-CoV-2 of worldwide concern. These embrace variants that emerged first in India, in Britain, in South Africa and in Brazil. read more

Officers on the WHO didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark concerning the brand new variant recognized in Vietnam.

Laboratory cultures of the brand new variant, which is way more transmissible than the beforehand identified varieties, revealed that the virus replicated itself in a short time, Lengthy was quoted as saying.

He stated that might clarify why so many new instances had appeared in several elements of the nation inside a brief time frame.

Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.