Spreads faster through air: Why Vietnam's 'hybrid variant' is causing concern

NEW DELHI: Vietnam has discovered a new Covid-19 variant that is a hybrid of strains first found in India and the UK.

Vietnam health minister Nguyen Thanh Long did not specify the number of cases recorded with this new variant but described the latest mutation as "very dangerous".

There were seven known Covid-19 variants in Vietnam before Long's announcement, according to the ministry of health.


Here's all you need to know about the new hybrid Covid-19 variant in Vietnam:
-The new Covid-19 variant had combining characteristics of the two existing variants first found in India and the UK.

- The characteristic of this strain is more transmissible than the previously known types and it spreads quickly in the air.

- The concentration of virus in the throat fluid increases rapidly and spreads very strongly to the surrounding environment.

- The health officials have said that Vietnam would soon publish genome data of the newly identified variant.

- Laboratory cultures of the new variant showed the virus replicated itself very quickly, possibly explaining why so many new cases had appeared in different parts of Vietnam in a short period of time, officials said.

-“The new variant is very dangerous,” Long said in a statement.

-Most of the new transmissions were found in Bac Ninh and Bac Giang, two provinces dense with industrial zones where hundreds of thousands of people work for major companies.

-The World Health Organization (WHO) has classified variants found in India and UK as a "variant of global concern".

(With agency inputs)