Vietnam Detects New Covid Variant, Hybrid Of Strains Found In India, UK

Vietnam said the concentration of coronavirus in the throat fluid increases rapidly and spreads very strongly to the surrounding environment.

Vietnam has discovered a new COVID-19 variant which spreads quickly by air and is a combination of the strains first found in India and Britain, health officials confirmed Saturday. The country is struggling to deal with fresh outbreaks across more than half of its territory, including industrial zones and big cities such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. More than 6,800 cases including 47 deaths have been reported in Vietnam, with the lion's share occurring since April. "We have discovered a new hybrid variant from the... strains," found in India and the UK, Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long told a national meeting on the pandemic Saturday, according to state media.