A third variant of Covid-19 first detected in Brazil and Japan has sparked fears it could spread to Australia, with top doctors saying it shares characteristics with the highly infectious UK strain
The Shizuoka prefectural government issued a virus emergency alert on Jan. 19, a day after three cases of infection with a new coronavirus variant were confirmed in the central Japan prefecture.
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Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks during a White House Coronavirus Task Force press briefing in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on November 19, 2020 in Washington, DC.
Dr. Anthony Fauci warned on Sunday about more ominous strains of COVID-19 that emerged in other parts of the world.
Fauci, the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said U.S. researchers are looking very carefully at more ominous strains in addition to another highly contagious COVID-19 strain first found in the U.K., reported New York Post.
However, they are believed to be more contagious than the original strain that started the pandemic.
A higher infection rate inevitably means more vulnerable people are likely to need hospital care - when the NHS is already reaching full capacity.
Professor Devi Sridhar, chair of Global Public Health at the University of Edinburgh, said the world has become the virus s playground .
Symptoms of new covid strain
Japan s National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID) detected the new covid variant in four travellers from Brazil s Amazonas state on January 2.
One male in his 40s, who was asymptomatic on his arrival in Japan, was later hospitalised as the virus attacked his respiratory system.