Vietnamese authorities informed on May 29, 2021 that they have discovered a very dangerous variant of COVID-19 that has combined mutations first found in India and the UK and is spreading very quickly by air.
The new COVID-19 hybrid variant in Vietnam is replicating very quickly, fueling the nation's worst outbreak so far.
Vietnam's Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long said the nation will soon publish genome data of the newly identified variant.
New COVID-19 variant in Vietnam: Know all about it
• According to Vietnam's Health Minister, a new hybrid variant of COVID-19 is more transmissible than the previously known types.
• He stated that the laboratory cultures of the new variant showed that the virus replicated itself very quickly, possibly explaining how so many new cases appeared in different parts of the country in such a short period.
• According to experts, though the full genomic sequence of the potential hybrid is still unclear, the initial reports on the ground are worrying.
• Some of the epidemiologists in the country suspect that the hybrid variant of coronavirus will have even higher transmissibility than the original strain or any of the variants.
• Vietnam could see a steep rise of COVID-19 soon.
• To prevent another wave of the pandemic in the nation, the government has closed shops, restaurants and suspended religious activities and restricted gatherings to ten people and also enforced two-meter social distancing rules.
• People above the age of 60 years have been encouraged to stay at home as the authorities begin some 100,000 tests a day.
• Vietnam, which was considered a pandemic success story, now plans to test all 13 million residents of Ho Chi Minh City and tighten social distancing measures.
China tightens border security
China being a neighbour of Vietnam has tightened its border security.
WHO's response
• The World Health Organisation (WHO) is investigating the reports of the mutation that spreads extremely quickly.
• WHO had earlier identified four variants of concern emerging from the UK, India, South Africa and Brazil and even given them new names to reduce stigma around the origin country.
Check out all the new names of the variants here
• WHO Technical Lead for COVID-19, Maria Van Kerkhove said that currently the variant detected in Vietnam is understood to be the B.1.617.2 variant, the same COVID-19 variant that was first discovered in India.
• She agreed to the possibility of the variant undergoing additional mutation but said that more information would be provided when it was received.
Vietnam's worst outbreak due to vaccine shortage?• The situation in Vietnam follows the same pattern as other nations in the Asia-Pacific region, most of which like Singapore and Thailand were praised for successfully containing the virus in 2020. • These nations have struggled to obtain vaccines, and to date, Vietnam has managed to vaccinate just 1 percent of its 96 million-strong population with the first dose. • The nation this week asked several companies to help in sourcing vaccines for their workers. |
Background
The World Health Organisation, International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank Group and World Trade Organisation (WTO) on May 31, 2021 warned of a "two-track pandemic" where inequitable vaccine distribution was leaving millions vulnerable to the virus and creating deadly variants to boomerang around the world.
Vietnam has so far witnessed about 7,100 COVID-19 cases and 47 deaths. However, more than 4,000 of these cases emerged in an outbreak that was first detected on April 27 in 34 cities and provinces.
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