Health

Vietnam detects new Indian-British hybrid coronavirus variant

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, May 29 (EFE).- Vietnam has detected a new coronavirus variant that is a combination of the Indian and British mutations, the country’s health minister Nguyen Thanh Long said Saturday.

“It is the Indian variant with mutations that originally belonged to the British variant,” the minister said in statements reported by the state-run portal VnExpress.

The new variant was discovered when investigating the genome sequence of the virus in some newly infected people, the minister said, noting that it could be more infectious and resistant than other variants.

In recent weeks, Vietnam has reported its worst wave of infections since the pandemic began, with record numbers of daily cases that are of growing concern to the authorities who have so far successfully managed to contain the spread of the virus.

Since the latest wave began on April 27, Vietnam has recorded around 3,600 community infections out of a total of 6,396 since the start of the pandemic, which has caused 47 deaths in total.

Vietnam’s success in slowing the spreading of the virus has not been replicated in its vaccination campaign, which is progressing slowly. Just over one million Vietnamese have been inoculated with the drug out of a population of 96 million.

Hanoi has blamed the slow rollout on supply problems in the international market. EFE

vie-nc/ks

Related Articles

Back to top button