Vietnam detects hybrid of variants first detected in India and UK
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HANOI • The authorities in Vietnam have detected a new coronavirus variant that is a combination of the Covid-19 variants first found in India and Britain, and spreads quickly by air, the Health Minister said yesterday.
After successfully containing the virus for most of last year, Vietnam is grappling with a spike in infections since late last month that accounts for more than half of the total 6,713 registered cases. So far, there have been 47 deaths.
"Vietnam has uncovered a new Covid-19 variant combining characteristics of the two existing variants first found in India and the UK," Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long said, describing it as a hybrid of the two known variants.
"That the new one is an India variant with mutations that originally belong to the UK variant is very dangerous," he told a government meeting.
The country previously detected seven virus variants: B1222, B1619, D614G, B117 (the variant first identified in Britain) B1351, A231 and B16172 (the variant first identified in India). The minister said Vietnam will soon publish genome data of the newly identified variant, which he said was more transmissible than the previously known types.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has identified four variants of Sars-CoV-2 of global concern. These include variants that emerged first in India, in Britain, in South Africa and in Brazil.
Officials at the WHO did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the new variant identified in Vietnam.
REUTERS