Vietnam has discovered a new COVID-19 variant that’s a hybrid of strains first found in India and the UK, health officials confirmed Saturday, adding that it spreads quickly by air.
The country is struggling to deal with fresh outbreaks across more than half of its territory, including industrial zones and big cities such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long said Saturday that scientists identified the variant while examining the genetic makeup of the virus that had infected some recent patients. He said lab tests suggested it might spread more easily than other versions of the virus, according to state media.
Long said Vietnam would soon publish genome data of the newly identified variant, which he said was more transmissible than the previously known types.
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The World Health Organisation (WHO) has listed four global variants of concern – the ones found in the UK and India, plus two more identified in South Africa and Brazil.
Besides, Pakistan detected the first-ever case of the highly infectious B.1.617 variant of coronavirus, first identified in India, despite a ban on travellers from the neighbouring country since April, the country’s top health institute here has said.
The National Institute of Health (NIH) on Friday shared the results of whole-genome sequencing of SARS CoV-2 samples collected during the first three weeks of May 2021, The Express Tribune reported on Friday.
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