The B1617 Covid-19 variant is spreading worldwide at 'frightening speed' and could aggravate the pandemic - particularly in countries with low vaccination rates.
Representational image of coronavirus | Image credit: crowf/freepik
The B1617 Covid-19 variant is spreading worldwide at a ‘frightening speed’ and could aggravate the pandemic particularly in countries with low vaccination rates, according to the latest assessment of the virus by experts here.
The B1617 strain is becoming increasingly dominant worldwide and this will not be the last time that the virus mutates, the Strait Times reported on Sunday.
What is frightening is the speed at which this variant is able to spread and circulate widely within the community, often surpassing the capability of contact-tracing units to track and isolate exposed contacts to break the transmission chains, – a Professor Teo Yik Ying, Dean of the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, was quoted as saying.
A sharp rise in COVID-19 cases from new variants in parts of Southeast Asia that had been less affected by the pandemic has prompted new restrictions, factory closures and attempts to rapidly scale up vaccination programs across the region.
The number of new daily COVID-19 cases in Malaysia has soared past India’s on a per capita basis, while total cases in Cambodia, East Timor, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam have all more than doubled in the past month.
Thailand, which was the second country to record infections after China, had won plaudits for containing its first wave of cases, but its death toll
Read more about B1617 variant spreading worldwide at frightening speed : Experts on Business Standard. The B1617 Covid-19 variant is spreading worldwide at frightening speed and could aggravate the pandemic particularly in countries with low vaccination rates