Vietnam health minister Nguyen Thanh Long said Saturday the country had detected a new coronavirus variant - a combination of the COVID-19 variants first reported in Europe and India that spreads quickly by air, online newspaper VnExpress reported.
The variant detected in Britain is believed to be more contagious than ordinary strains while the India variant is both transmissible and potentially less susceptible to neutralizing antibodies of the immune system, scientists said.
After successfully containing the virus for most of 2020, Vietnam is now struggling with a fast-spreading outbreak. Almost 3,600 people have been sickened in 31 of its 63 cities and provinces since late last month, accounting for more than 50% of Vietnam's total cases, according to The Straits Times.
"After running gene sequencing on newly detected patients, we have discovered a new variant that's a mix of India and UK ones," VnExpress quoted Long as saying, adding the new variant has yet to be named.
Laboratory cultures of the variant revealed the virus replicated more quickly - explaining why so many new cases appeared in different locations in a short period, Long said.
Late Friday the Ministry of Health confirmed 173 new COVID-19 community transmissions, raising the tally of the new wave to 3,508. Of the new infections, 123 were reported in Bac Giang, 25 in Ho Chi Minh city, 20 in Bac Ninh, three in Hanoi and two in Lang Son, VnExpress said.
According to the World Health Organization, as of May 28, 2021, there have been 168.6 million confirmed cases worldwide and 3,507,477 deaths.
