Vietnam detects Indian and UK COVID-19 variant

On May 29, 2021

Vietnam has detected hybrid of Indian and UK COVID-19 variant, a mix of the Indian and UK Covid-19 variants that spreads quickly by air.

Vietnam health minister, Nguyen Thanh Long said on Saturday, “After running gene sequencing on newly detected patients, we have discovered a new variant that is a mix of India and UK ones.

“More specifically, it is an Indian variant with mutations that originally belong to the UK variant,” he said.

Nearly 3,600 people have been infected in 31 of its 63 cities and provinces since late April, accounting for more than half of the country’s total infections.

Vietnam had previously reported seven virus variants: B.1.222, B.1.619, D614G, B.1.1.7 the UK variant, B.1.351, A.23.1 and B.1.617.2 the Indian variant.

Laboratory cultures of the new variant, which is much more transmissible than the previously known types, revealed that the virus replicated itself very quickly, explaining why so many new cases appeared in different locations in a short period.

The Southeast Asian country has registered 6,396 COVID-19 cases so far, with 47 deaths.

Kamila/Reuters