A healthcare worker examines COVID-19 testing results in the lab.
 

Late on April 29 the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (NIHE) announced that it has completed genome sequencing for four COVID-19 cases entering Vietnam from India.

It found that all four patients had carried the new variant B.1.617 of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that is spreading across India and causing a catastrophic disaster now in the South Asian nation.

These are the first such cases recorded in Vietnam, said the NIHE.

The four Indian experts and their colleagues were placed in quarantine at a hotel in Yen Bai province upon their arrival in Vietnam on April 18.

A hotel receptionist came into contact with the group and he was later confirmed as a COVID-19 patient. The man’s genome sequencing results will be announced on April 30.

Variant B.1.617, also known as the double mutant, is more transmissible than other variants, but is still responsive to vaccines, according to preliminary studies.

VOV

Concerned about Covid-19 strain in India, Vietnam urgently decodes genes

The Indian strain of Covid-19 is more contagious and more fatal. Vietnam is rushing to sequence the gene in Covid-19 infections in four Indian experts who are currently in Vietnam.