//What do we know about the Vietnam COVID-19 variant?

What do we know about the Vietnam COVID-19 variant?

Another highly contagious COVID-19 variant is on the map. Some have called it a “hybrid” of already known variants, and the Vietnamese government said it has been trying to contain a surge in cases linked to it.

Right now, health experts believe the main hallmark of the strain is easier transmission.

“There’s no evidence that it is more lethal or that it causes more severe disease, and as far as we know, increased transmission is the main problem,” Dr. Jane Kelly said.

Kelly is Assistant State Epidemiology with South Carolina’s Department of Health and Environmental Control.

“It’s quite similar to the variant that’s circulating in India right now. It hasn’t been fully studied, fully characterized yet, but it has some mutations that we’ve seen before that we’ve seen in other variants,” Kelly said.