A new coronavirus variant that is a combination of the Indian and UK COVID-19 variants and spreads quickly by air has been detected in Vietnam.
“Vietnam has uncovered a new COVID-19 variant combining characteristics of the two existing variants first found in India and the UK,” a news agency quoted Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long as saying.
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“That the new one is an Indian variant with mutations that originally belong to the UK variant is very dangerous,” he told a government meeting.
Vietnam had previously detected seven virus variants: B.1.222, B.1.619, D614G, B.1.1.7 – known as the UK variant, B.1.351, A.23.1 and B.1.617.2 – the “Indian variant”.
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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Medical workers in protective suits stand outside a quarantined building amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Hanoi, Vietnam, January 29, 2021. REUTERS/Thanh Hue
The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified four variants of SARS-CoV-2 of global concern. These include variants that emerged first in India, Britain, South Africa and Brazil.