A new variant of the coronavirus that is “highly contagious” has emerged in Vietnam, the country’s Health Ministry announced Saturday according to the international news outlet VnExpress.
The new variant, which is believed to have spurred a recent wave of COVID-19 infections in the South Asian county is “highly transmissible when spread through the air, and Long said that viral cultures revealed the virus was able to replicate itself very quickly,” the newspaper reported.
Citing Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long, the news outlet reported that “the new variant is a version of the one first found in India with mutations like the U.K. variant.”
“The Ministry of Health would announce the new coronavirus variant on the global genome map,” Long said, according to VnExpress. The variant has yet to be named.
The news from Vietnam comes as India continues to struggle after the coronavirus overwhelmed hospitals, and created a dearth of medical supplies in the country. The Indian variant, B.1.617, is thought to be the main cause of an explosion of cases in the country.
U.S Health officials said that coronavirus vaccines administered are effective against the Indian variant. It remains unclear if a vaccine will stand up to the new variant announced by health officials in Vietnam.
