Vietnam discovers new coronavirus variant

Vietnam has detected a new coronavirus variant with characteristics from the existing Indian and UK variants, the Ministry of Health announced, Report informs referring to VnExpress.

Minister Nguyen Thanh Long said genetic sequencing on several Covid-19 patients in Vietnam have revealed the presence of two common coronavirus variants: one first discovered in the UK and the other from India.

The UK variant is believed to be more transmissible than ordinary strains, while the Indian variant is both more transmissible and potentially less susceptible to neutralizing antibodies of the immune system, experts said.

But a new coronavirus variant has recently been detected in Vietnam with characteristics from both the UK and the Indian variants. More specifically, it is an Indian variant with mutations that originally belong to the UK variant.

"The Ministry of Health would announce the new coronavirus variant on the global genome map," said Long, adding that the new variant has yet to be named.

So far, Vietnam has recorded the presence of seven coronavirus variants, including ones from the UK, India and South Africa.