Vietnam on January 2 announced that is has detected its first case of the new strain of novel coronavirus that was first seen in the UK, Reuters reported.
The new strain was found in a 44-year-old woman who came from UK when she was quarantined upon arrival and was diagnosed positive for the virus.
“Researchers ran gene-sequencing on the patient’s sample and found the strain is a variant known as ‘VOC 202012/01,” the health ministry said in a statement.
The new strain of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) from the UK is reportedly more contagious, but experts believe there’s no evidence to date that the new coronavirus strain is more likely to trigger serious diseases or other adverse health effects.
The UK Health Secretary earlier said that vaccines currently available for COVID-19 in the market produce antibodies against many regions in the spike protein – and that it is unlikely that this mutation would render the vaccine to be less effective.
