The health ministry of Vietnam has found a suspected novel COVID-19 variant which it described seems to be a mixture of two extremely contagious variants.
On Saturday, in a news conference, Nguyen Thanh Long (Vietnam’s Minister of Health) said that a novel Coronavirus strain with characteristics from the existing UK and Indian variants had been founded in the country for the first time.
The nation came as a top example in contracting Coronavirus and appreciations to an aggressive plan of opening screening of travelers arriving at airports and strong checks and quarantine strategies.
Bu the country, since the end of April, has experienced a quick surge in Coronavirus patients. According to the JHU (Johns Hopkins University) data, around half of its 6,396 confirmed cases appeared just in the previous month. Moreover, it is ambiguous if the alleged novel strain is behind the quick surge in COVID-19 cases. In case if it is true, it could recommend that it is very contiguous.
Source: Web
Fourth wave in Vietnam
The health ministry described that the 4th wave of Coronavirus in the country included cases in industrial places, many sources of infections, and the availability of different COVID-19 variants. The health minister further explained that it would transmit very quickly, and it will be very tough to control.
On Saturday, the WHO (World Health Organization) described that its VEWG (Virus Evolution Working Group) was operating with officials in Vietnam to identify the novel COVID strain as 4 people were confirmed to be infected with a suspected new variant.
In a statement, Maria Van Kerkhove (the WHO’s technical lead for Coronavirus) said that they have not yet created an assessment of the Coronavirus strain detected in Vietnam, and they expect that more strains will continue to be reported as the Coronavirus transmits and evolves and as sequencing capacities are ramped up across the world.
She added, ‘from what they understand, the strain they founded in the B.1.617.2 strain perhaps with an additional mutation, and they will offer more information as soon as they get it.’ Furthermore, the B.1.617.2 strain was initially reported in India, where the country’s regulators have described it, and other strains have pushed the country into a very critical situation.
Earlier this month, the British health regulators upgraded this (B.1.617.2) variant to a strain of concern due to its quick transmission in the United Kingdom.
