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Updated June 3rd, 2021 at 21:55 IST

WHO confirms Vietnam's suspicious COVID-19 variant not hybrid strain

The WHO officials in Vietnam have claimed that a new strain of COVID is not hybrid rather a mutated version of the existing Delta strain.

Reported by: Arisha Dutta
Vietnam
Source- ANI | Image:self
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Kidong Park, a World Health Organization representative in Vietnam on Thursday informed that the suspicious coronavirus variant found recently in Vietnam is not a hybrid variant of India and the UK. He asserted that the COVID variant is rather a mutated version of the existing Delta or Indian variant in Vietnam. The statement was followed after the Vietnamese Health Minister earlier this week claimed the new variant to be a hybrid.

Kidong Park further said, the delta strain with further mutation requires more observation and it is likely to be highly contagious. He noted that for the time being there is no alarming alert from the WHO. 

An upsurge of COVID cases in Vietnam

Vietnam has done a marvelous job in containing the spread of COVID infection, however, since late April the country has reported an increased number of COVID cases. The infectious outbreaks have been witnessed in the country mostly in the industrial areas of Bac Ninh and Bac Giang near the capital, Hanoi. On Thursday, the country reported 245 new cases along with one death. Noting the recent outbreak, Son Nghiem, a senior research fellow at Griffith University's Centre for Applied Health Economics in Australia informed that new cases are mostly associated with Indian variants. 

The industrial sector of Vietnam since April has faced a major halt in its production. Presently it is even difficult to say when Bac Giang and Bac Ninh the vital international manufacturing centres will be able to end the outbreak. Reportedly over 400 companies with 65,000 employees have been forced to stop working. Four out of six industries were shut down on May 18 that affected the lives of 1,40,000 workers. The COVID-hit factory workers were even asked to say inside the factories, eat, sleep, and work inside temporary tents set up to contain the infection. 

(Source- ANI)

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Published June 3rd, 2021 at 21:55 IST

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