Published 13:23 IST, December 21st 2020
'No need to panic', says Health Minister Harsh Vardhan as new COVID strain spreads in UK
The recent surge of cases of new COVID-19 strain has caused a stir across the world, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said that “the government is alert”.
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As the recent surge of cases of new coronavirus strain in UK has caused a stir across the world, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on December 21 informed that “the government is alert” and that “there is no need to panic”. Over 1,000 cases of the coronavirus variant have been discovered in the past few days in England and majorly in the south of the country where British Health Secretary Matt Hancock had said can be connected to a surge in the cases.
"The government is alert. There is no need to panic", said Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on the discovery of the new strain of coronavirus in UK
Even the World Health Organisation (WHO) had said that it is aware of the new variant of COVID-19 but noted that there is still no evidence of the pathogen behaving any differently from the existing types of virus that have rocked the world since the beginning of 2020. Last week, WHO Emergencies Director Dr Mike Ryan had said in a Geneva news conference that authorities are still looking at the significance of the strain discovery and added, “We have seen many variants, this virus evolves and changes over time.”
How fast is new strain spreading?
As India recorded 24,337 new cases, 25,709 recoveries, and 333 deaths in the last 24 hours taking the country's tally to 1,00,55,560 with 96,06,111 recoveries, the new strain of COVID-19 is reportedly replacing the other versions of the virus in the UK. Even though it is a well-known fact among the experts that pathogens mutate as they continue to spread, as per reports, there are some parts of the new coronavirus variant that are likely to be important.
Some of the mutations have already been shown in the lab to enhance the ability of the virus to infect cells in the host’s body. These new factors can sum up for the virus to spread more easily among the people even as the global infections as per Johns Hopkins University tally have surpassed 76 million with over 1.6 million deaths.
The new strain, which can be the new worry for medical professionals, was reportedly first discovered in September. This was followed by a quarter of cases in London by November and by mid-December, it has reached to two-thirds of cases. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson had also said that the variant may be up to 70% more transmissible. Except for Northern Ireland, the new COVID-19 strain can be found across UK.
Read - India Recognised COVID Threat Early, Pursued Scientific Evidence-based Approach: Harsh Vardhan
13:25 IST, December 21st 2020