The World Health Organization (WHO) does not currently record any impact of the new COVID-19 mutation on its mortality. This was announced on Sunday, December 20, on the BFM TV channel by Sylvie Briand, director of the organization’s pandemics and epidemics department.
According to her, there is nothing surprising in what is happening now, because viruses can mutate, and more research is required to accurately understand whether the impact of coronavirus on humans is changing.
“Currently, we are not seeing the occurrence of any change in the lethality of the virus,” the expert said.
According to Brian, the new strain of coronavirus is unlikely to have an impact on the vaccine, but added that “more special research is needed.”
“For each identified mutations, it is necessary to determine what new characteristics it acquires, whether major changes occur, or is it just a normal evolution,” she stressed.
The WHO spokesman urged not to panic and believes that the measures taken by the UK will slow down the spread of the new modification of COVID-19 and it “will not be rapid in the period that precedes the massive use of vaccines.”
At the same time, she acknowledged that “the situation is uncertain and it is difficult to say whether to resort to the precautionary principle” and take additional measures.
Earlier, on December 20, it was reported that Saudi Arabia announced the suspension of international flights due to the mutation of the new coronavirus noted in several countries. The decision to suspend flights from the UK, Denmark, the Netherlands and South Africa due to the discovery of a new COVID-19 strain was also made by the Turkish authorities.
Earlier in the day, a number of European countries also suspended transport links with the UK.
On December 14, UK Health Minister Matt Hancock announced that a new, mutated version of the coronavirus had been identified in the country. At that time, about 1,000 infections with the new strain were noted in the south of the country.
On December 19, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus strain identified in the south of Great Britain is more infectious. According to the politician, the initial signs of the spread of the new variant of the virus indicate that it is 70% more infectious than the original strain.