Vietnamese health minister reveals a COVID-19 variant has been identified in Vietnam that is a hybrid of strains initially detected in India and the United Kingdom. Scientists investigated the genetic composition of the virus that had infected some recent patients and discovered a new variant of the virus, said Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long. The lab tests indicated it appears to spread more quickly than other strains of the virus.
As viruses multiply, they typically have small genetic changes, and new variations of the coronavirus have been spotted almost since it was initially discovered in China in late 2019. The World Health Organization has identified four global concerns, including the two initially found in the United Kingdom and India and those discovered in South Africa and Brazil.
Long claimed that the current variant is to blame for a significant rise in Vietnam, which has spread to 30 of the country's 63 municipalities and provinces. Vietnam was an early standout in the fight against the virus, with just over 3,100 confirmed cases and 35 deaths since the outbreak began in early May, as per MarketWatch.
Vietnam races to increase testing and restrictions
However, in the previous weeks, Vietnam has reported over 3,500 new cases and 12 deaths, bringing the overall death toll in the nation to 47. The majority of the new transmissions were discovered in Bac Ninh and Bac Giang provinces, densely populated with industrial zones where hundreds of thousands of people work for large corporations like Samsung, Canon, and Luxshare, an Apple manufacturing partner. Despite strict health and safety standards, one-fifth of a company's 4,800 employees tested positive for the virus in Bac Giang.
According to the Health Ministry, at least 85 people have tested positive as part of a cluster at a Protestant church in Ho Chi Minh City, the country's largest city with 9 million people. Worshippers sung and chanted while seated close together, wearing no masks or taking any other safety measures. Since then, Vietnam has imposed a statewide ban on all religious gatherings. Large gatherings in closed public spaces, and non-essential businesses, such as in-person bars, clubs, restaurants, and spas, have all been banned in major cities.
According to the Associated Press, the government also aims to test the city's whole population, despite having a daily testing capacity of 100,000 samples. Since the outbreak, Vietnamese officials have moved quickly to limit infections, with just 3,100 cases and 35 fatalities reported by early May.
However, a concerning pattern had emerged at that time, with additional cases being discovered in 31 municipalities and provinces. Only approximately 1 million of Vietnam's 96 million people have been vaccinated, raising fears that this newest hybrid variety would be difficult to manage.
As the pandemic has progressed, Vietnam has joined the ranks of many low- and middle-income nations with limited access to coronavirus vaccinations. However, multiple highly transmissible COVID-19 variants continue to circulate across the world. Scientists claim that a variant in India is to blame for the country's unprecedented increase in cases and deaths, which have shattered previous world records.
Vietnam still not on Britain's travel red list
Despite discovering a potentially harmful new COVID-19 variant in Vietnam, the United Kingdom is still allowed to visit. Over the weekend, it was revealed that a virus strain in Vietnam seemed to be a combination of the UK and Indian strains, both rapidly spreading.
The red list was created to reduce the possibility of novel viral types being imported into the UK, causing vaccinations to fail. Scientists and politicians were outraged when India delayed weeks to be added to the list despite having the world's worst outbreak. A variant that arose there is now dominating the UK, threatening to derail preparations to lift the lockdown.
Despite this and discovering a hybrid variant in Vietnam, the country remains to be not on the amber list, meaning hotel quarantine is unnecessary. Because the variant has not yet been recognized worldwide, it is uncertain whether it has spread to other nations.
Jonathan Ashworth, a Labor MP and shadow health secretary condemned the government's poor, delayed judgments on border policy for allowing the Indian strain to enter. After foreign travel became authorized on May 17, the travel lists will be revised later this week, Daily Mail reported.
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