New UK-Indian corona variant detected in Vietnam, health officials say

May 30: A new variant of coronavirus has been detected in Vietnam that appears to be a combination of the Indian and UK variants and can spread quickly by air, reported BBC quoting the local officials.

Vietnam's Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long described the latest mutation on Saturday as "very dangerous". Viruses mutate all the time and most variants are inconsequential, but some can make a virus more contagious. Nguyen said the new hybrid variant was more transmissible than previously known versions, especially in the air. He said it was discovered after running tests on newly-detected patients, online newspaper VnExpress reported. He added that the genetic code of the virus would be made available soon.

Since COVID-19 was first detected in December, 2019 in China, thousands of mutations have so far been detected.

"Vietnam has uncovered a new Covid-19 variant combining characteristics of the two existing variants first found in India and the UK," Mr Nguyen told a government meeting, according to Reuters news agency.