New coronavirus strain in Danang city is not ominous: WHO

The coronavirus variant detected in Vietnam's coastal city of Danang is known to have transmitted in other countries during July, VnExpress quoted Kidong Park, a World Health Organization (WHO) representative in Vietnam, as saying.

A medical worker in Danang city writes on a vial containing Covid-19 test sample. Photo: Dac Thanh

Park made the statement after some said that the coronavirus strain in Danang is more infectious than the previous ones. Nothing suggests that mutations of the virus caused any changes to its severity or transmissibility, Park said.

Currently, the most widespread coronavirus variant in the world is called D614G. This strain, which is not new, is often referred to as the G variant and has appeared sporadically in samples of nCoV-infected patients from the beginning of the outbreak in China’s Wuhan until February.

It is unknown whether the virus spread in Danang is D614G strain or not. In the past six days, Vietnam has recorded 42 new Covid-19 patients. Among them, 37 were detected in Danang city.

When the first local transmission was detected after 99 days of no community infection, Nguyen Thanh Long, acting Minister of Health, on July 27 said the virus in Danang was a new strain of foreign origin which had never been recorded in the country.

However, it has not yet been confirmed whether the virulence of the new strain was greater than that of the previous variants, Long added.

Dr. Nguyen Van Kinh, Chairman of the Vietnam Infectious Association, said that the new coronavirus strain in Danang spreads quickly but the virulence remains constant. Thus, Vietnam has recorded six strains, while there have been 99 in the world.

Vietnam has confirmed 459 Covid-19 cases so far, with 90 remaining active. The first community transmission in Danang last week was a 57-year-old man, breaking Vietnam's 99-day streak of no community transmission.