WHO says new COVID-19 variants now in dozens of countries

WHO says new COVID-19 variants now in dozens of countries

GENEVA: New COVID-19 variants that make the virus more contagious and could render vaccine and antibody protection less effective have spread rapidly across dozens of countries, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.

In its latest epidemiological update, the UN health agency said the more contagious COVID-19 variant first spotted in Britain had by January 25 spread to 70 countries across all regions of the world.

NEW VARIANT SPREAD TO 31 COUNTRIES

That variant, known as VOC 202012/01 or B.1.1.7 and has been proven to transmit more easily than previous variants of the virus, had thus spread to 10 more countries over the past week, the WHO said.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson last week also warned that fresh studies had indicated the strain could be more deadly, but the WHO stressed Wednesday that those "results are preliminary, and more analyzes are required to further corroborate these findings.“

All viruses mutate when they replicate in order to adapt to their environment, and scientists have tracked multiple mutations of Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

The vast majority of mutations are of little importance, but the WHO has urged countries to actively work to spot mutations that might significantly alter either the virus's virulence or transmissibility.

That was the