The World Health Organization (WHO) has revealed that the faster-spreading UK coronavirus variant named VUI-202012/01, has now been found in at least 60 countries.
The South African strain, 501Y.V2, which like the United Kingdom one, is believed to be more infectious but does not appear deadlier, has now been reported in 23 countries and territories, the WHO added in its weekly update.
With the global death toll now well past two million, and new variants of the virus causing deep concern, countries across the world are battling with how to slow infections until vaccines become widely available.
The weekly update also stated that number of new deaths climbed to a record high of 93,000 over the previous seven days, with 4.7 million new cases over the same period.
The UK strain, first detected in mid-December, is thought by the WHO to be between 50-70 percent more infectious than the original.
The strains share a common mutation, which scientists call N501Y. This is a slight alteration on one spot of the spike protein that coats the virus. That change is believed to be the reason these strains can spread so easily.
Experts have made known that most of the vaccines being rolled out around the world train the body to recognise that spike protein and fight it. Pfizer and German partner BioNTech have said their vaccines are effective against the mutation found on the British virus variant.
Meanwhile, the European Union (EU) announced earlier that it was aiming to inoculate 70 percent of its adult population before the end of August. EU Chief Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement that meeting the goal could be “a turning point in our fight against this virus”.
However, EU countries, and other nations including India and Russia, have struggled to get their inoculation programmes off the ground.
The Indian Government reported that in the first three days of country’s vaccine drive, only 381,305 vaccinations were administered.
Also, in the capital New Delhi, only 53 percent of the people expected came for the shots,
The US remains the world’s worst outbreak in overall numbers. On January 19, the country reached a grim milestone reporting 400,000 deaths. President-elect Joe Biden has said that in one of his first official acts as President, he will enforce the use of masks and social distancing in all federal buildings, on federal lands and by federal employees and contractors in a bid to curb the spread of the virus.
Recent days have also seen a renewed focus on the initial outbreak a year ago, with China defending its handling of the virus after independent experts criticized the speed of its response.
The WHO’s decision-making at the early stage of the pandemic was also under the independent panel’s scrutiny with experts questioning why the UN health agency did not convene an emergency committee earlier, and why it failed to label the outbreak a pandemic until early March 2020.
