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Viet Nam reports new Covid-19 variant first seen in UK

VGP – The National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control said Saturday that it had found an infection case with new and more transmissible variant of the virus that first emerged in the UK.

January 02, 2021 3:40 PM GMT+7

The aforesaid case is a 44-year-old woman in Nguyet Hoa Commune, Chau Thanh District of the Mekong Delta province of Tra Vinh.

She was among 305 passengers onboard the flight VN50 from the UK that landed at the Can Tho International Airport on December 22.

She was confirmed positive for Covid-19 on December 25, 2020 and have been treated at the Tra Vinh Hospital for Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases.

Her husband, who is living in the UK, had tested positive for Covid-19, according to the National Steering Committee.

Also on December 25, the National Steering Committee urged domestic research institutes to promptly coordinate with foreign partners to clarify whether the UK’s new Covid-19 variant had entered Viet Nam.

The new variant has prompted many European and Asian countries to cancel flights from the UK as it is thought to spread about 50% to 70% faster that other forms of the virus.

In the UK, health officials said the new strain may be responsible for a rapid increase in the number of Covid-19 case in its Southeast region in recent weeks.

According to the New York Times, the list of countries and territories that have identified infections with the variant has been growing rapidly, and as of Friday includes — besides the United States, Britain and Turkey — Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Lebanon, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Pakistan, Portugal, Singapore, the Republic of Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates, and Chinese Taipei./.

By Thuy Dung

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