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10:26 p. M.
Monday 21 December 2020
Geneva – (dpa):
WHO officials said the new strain of coronavirus that has caused panic in Britain has been found in people in Australia, Iceland, Italy and the Netherlands, in addition to some cases in Denmark.
The executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Program, Mike Ryan, told a press conference: Although the new strain is spreading faster than previously known strains, the transmission of the infection is not as rapid as the infection by measles, mumps and smallpox.
Maria Van Kerkhove, lead researcher on (Covid-19) at the World Health Organization, said that the new strain found in South Africa is similar to the one found in Britain, but the two are not related.
And the officials of the international organization had declared today that the new strain of the emerging corona virus is spreading at a faster rate, but is controllable like other known strains of the disease.
“The situation is not out of control, but it cannot be allowed to spread,” Mike Ryan told a news conference, urging countries to implement previously tested health measures.
The World Health Organization says that every ten people infected with the new strain of the virus can transmit the infection to another 15 on average, while the transmission rate of infection with previously known strains in Britain reaches 11 people.
And Maria Van Kerkhove said that scientists in Britain are trying to determine to what extent this increase is related to changes in the nature of the virus or to behavioral causes among citizens.
And he stressed that there is still no indication that the new strain causes more serious or life-threatening symptoms.
