The B1617 COVID-19 variant is spreading worldwide at a ‘frightening speed’ and could aggravate the pandemic—particularly in countries with low vaccination rates, according to the latest assessment.
The B1617 strain is becoming increasingly dominant worldwide and this will not be the last time that the virus mutates, the Strait Times reported on Sunday.
“What is frightening is the speed at which this variant is able to spread and circulate widely within the community, often surpassing the capability of contact-tracing units to track and isolate exposed contacts to break the transmission chains,” a Professor Teo Yik Ying, Dean of the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, was quoted as saying.
“It has the potential to unleash a bigger pandemic storm than the world has previously seen,” Ying added.
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