The Minister of Health of Vietnam said that the new strain combines variants originally found in the UK and India, and laboratory tests have shown that hybrids are more likely to spread than other forms of the virus.

An official said that Vietnamese authorities have detected a new variant of the coronavirus, which is a mixture of strains found in India and the United Kingdom.

Vietnamese Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said at a government meeting on Saturday that scientists discovered the new variant after examining the genetic makeup of the virus that has infected some recent patients.

He said: “The new variant is an Indian variant, and its mutation was originally a British variant, which is very dangerous.”

The minister said that laboratory tests have shown that the new virus strain may spread more easily than other versions of the virus, adding that Vietnam will soon release the genome data of the newly identified mutant strain.

After successfully containing the virus for most of last year, Vietnam is struggling to cope with the increase in infections since late April, accounting for more than half of all 6,856 registered cases. So far, 47 people have died.

This Southeast Asian country has previously detected 7 virus variants: B.1.222, B.1.619, D614G, B.1.1.7-the first variant found in the UK, B.1.351, A.23.1 and B.1.617.2-one Found in India.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified four variants of SARS-CoV-2 of global concern. These include variants that were first discovered in India, the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Brazil.

Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s head of COVID-19 technology, said in an emailed statement: “At present, we have not yet evaluated the virus mutation reported in Vietnam.”

“Our country representative office is cooperating with the Ministry of Health of Vietnam, and we hope to get more information as soon as possible.”

She said that according to the current understanding of the World Health Organization, the variant found in Vietnam is the B.1.617.2 variant, which is the first variant found in India, and there may be other mutations.

Van Kerkhove added: “However, we will provide more information as soon as we receive it.”

Vietnamese Minister of Health Long said that laboratory cultivation of this new virus showed that the virus replicated very quickly, which may explain why so many new cases have appeared in different parts of the country in such a short period of time.

The Ministry of Health told the government at the meeting that the government is securing 10 million doses of vaccines under the COVAX cost-sharing plan, in addition to 20 million doses of Pfizer vaccine and 40 million Russian SputnikV.

So far, a country of about 98 million people has received 2.9 million injections, and plans to achieve 150 million injections this year.

The Minister of Health of Vietnam said that Vietnam hopes to achieve cattle immunization before the end of this year.