[ad_1]
The Minister of Health of Vietnam stated that the new strain combines variants first discovered in the UK and India, and laboratory tests have shown that the hybrid virus may spread more easily than other versions of the virus.
An official said that Vietnamese authorities have detected a new variant of the coronavirus, which is a mixture of strains found in India and the United Kingdom.
Vietnamese Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said at a government meeting on Saturday that scientists discovered the new variant after examining the genetic makeup of the virus that has recently infected some patients.
“The new one is the Indian variant, and its mutation originally belonged to the British variant, which is very dangerous,” he said.
The Minister said that laboratory tests have shown that this new strain may spread more easily than other versions of the virus, adding that Vietnam will soon announce the genome data of the newly discovered variant.
After successfully controlling the virus for most of last year, Vietnam is struggling to cope with the increase in the number of infections since late April, accounting for more than half of the total registered cases of 6,856. So far, 47 people have died.
This Southeast Asian country has previously detected seven virus variants: B.1.222, B.1.619, D614G, B.1.1.7-the first variant found in the UK, B.1.351, A.23.1 and B.1.617.2- -One species found in India.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified four variants of SARS-CoV-2 of global concern. These include variants first discovered in India, the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil.
“At this time, we have not yet evaluated the virus variants reported in Vietnam,” Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s COVID-19 technical leader, said in an emailed statement.
“Our country office is cooperating with the Ministry of Health of Vietnam, and we look forward to receiving more information soon.”
She said that according to WHO’s current understanding, the variant detected in Vietnam is the B.1.617.2 variant, which is the first variant found in India, and there may be an additional mutation.
“However, we will provide more information as soon as we receive it,” Van Kerkhove added.
Vietnamese Minister of Health Lang said that the laboratory cultivation of the new variant showed that the virus replicated very quickly, which may explain why so many new cases have appeared in different parts of the country in a short period of time.
The Ministry of Health stated at the meeting that the government is working hard to obtain 10 million doses of vaccine, as well as another 20 million doses of Pfizer vaccine and 40 million doses of Russian Sputnik V under the COVAX cost-sharing plan.
So far, this country with a population of approximately 98 million has received 2.9 million doses of the vaccine and plans to receive 150 million doses this year.
The Minister of Health of Vietnam stated that Vietnam hopes to achieve herd immunity by the end of the year.
[ad_2]
Source link
