Specimen collection for SARS-CoV-2 testing in the northern province of Hai Duong. (Photo: VNA)Ho Chi Minh City (VNA) – The new, highly infectious variant of COVID-19 from the UK has been discovered in another patient in Vietnam, announced
the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Ho Chi Minh City on February 1.
The virus found in the 28-year-old Patient 1660 from the northern province of Hai Duong has 17 signature mutations of the
strain that has caused recent spike in COVID-19 cases in the UK and the
Europe, according to an analysis by a group of researchers from the Hospital
for Tropical Diseases in Ho Chi Minh City and the Oxford University Clinical Research
Unit (OUCRU).
The patient is under treatment at the city’s Cu Chi Field
Hospital.
The strain is believed to be more easily
transmissible than the original one and it is highly likely that it is the
dominant source of infection in Hai Duong, Vietnam’s largest COVID-19 hotspot
at the moment where more than 200 new cases have been detected since January
27.
Vietnam reported one infection in Hai Duong over
the last 12 hours, from 6:00pm on February 1 to 6:00am from February 2,
according to the National Steering Committee on COVID-19 Prevention and Control.
The new case took the national count to 1,851, including 964
community infections. The number of cases linked to fresh COVID-19 outbreaks
since January 27 reached 271. Fatalities remained at 35./.
Source: VietnamPlus
