Vietnamese authorities say they were finding it hard to track the origin of a fresh coronavirus outbreak that began in the central city of Danang and has infected around 200 people in recent weeks. “In Danang, there are many sources of virus, and there are still many infections out there in the community,” the government said of the city, a popular tourist hotspot with a population of 1.1m. Reuters Health reports that the country reported 34 infections on Sunday, bringing the total number of COVID-19 cases to 620. The death toll rose by two to five, the Vietnam Health Ministry said.
Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long said the strain of the virus detected in the new outbreak is a more contagious one. He said with the new strain, each infected person may infect about 5-6 people compared to 1.8-2.2 people in the previous period.
The report says authorities have taken a series of “unprecedented measures” to fight the outbreak in Danang, including the mobilisation of several hundred military school students to help with contact tracing and collecting test samples, the government said in its statement.
Vietnamese scientists said in a Business Insider report that while the strain is new in Vietnam, it has been seen before in Bangladesh, Britain and Ireland. The latest cases, which were first found on 25 July, marked the end of a 99-day streak without any new cases.
Marc Choisy, a bio-mathematician from the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Hanoi, is quoted as saying that the new strain in Vietnam looks to be more severe. "One big difference I've noticed between this wave and the previous one is that the cases we have right now, a lot of them are severe," he said.
Long said he could not confirm reports that it was more contagious, or more dangerous, than its predecessor.
The report says the World Health Organisation had previously singled out Vietnam for its efforts in containing the virus, but the spike in cases is a sombre moment.
[link url="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-vietnam-idUSKBN24Y0CL"]Full Reuters Health report[/link]
[link url="https://www.businessinsider.co.za/trending/vietnam-coronavirus-spike-new-strain-3-times-more-infectious-2020-8"]Full Business Insider report[/link]