Thursday, November 14

Vietnam detects highly contagious new variant of coronavirus


Vietnam has detected a new variant of the coronavirus that is highly transmissible and has characteristics of two other strains

Vietnam detecta una nueva variante de coronavirus altamente contagiosa
Vietnam has reimposed restrictions due to the increase in COVID cases – 19.

Photo: NHAC NGUYEN / AFP / Getty Images

Maria Ortiz

“Vietnam has discovered a new variant of COVID – 19 combining features of the two existing variants that were found for the first time in India and the United Kingdom ”, said the Minister of Health, Nguyen Thanh Long , according to Reuters . “That the new one is an Indian variant with mutations that originally belong to the variant of the United Kingdom, is very dangerous.”

The announcement came on Saturday when the country was faces a recent surge in infections of coronavirus which started in May, according to NPR .

Long said the new variant could be responsible for the latest increase in cases, according to AP .

The new variant is more transmissible in the air and Long says that the scientists looked at the ability of this variant to replicate rapidly in laboratory cultures, according to VnExpress .

Seven other variants of coronavirus in Vietnam before Saturday’s announcement.

The last variant still has no name, but the Ministry of Health plans to publish its genome data.

Since the pandemic began, Vietnam has reported 6, 713 cases and 47 deaths until Saturday. A little more than half of the cases and 12 of deaths were reported in the last month, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.

Most of the latest reported cases come from Bac Ninh and Bac Giang provinces, which have a large industrial presence. Hundreds of thousands of people work there to make products for big tech companies like Samsung, Canon and Apple.

At the start of the pandemic coronavirus, Vietnam was praised for the low number of cases and deaths. The country’s aggressive social distancing policies and experience with past epidemics were seen as effective measures to stop the spread.

But since the cases increased again, restrictions have been put back.

All religious events are prohibited throughout the country and the authorities of the main cities have closed public parks and non-essential businesses to help stop the contagion.

Almost 29, 000 people or 0. 03% of the country have been fully vaccinated against COVID – 15 , and just over 1 million doses have been administered.

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