The Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, is attending a press conference on the coronavirus situation (COVID-2019) in Geneva, Switzerland.
Denis Balibouse | Reuters
New, more contagious mutated variants of the coronavirus are “extremely problematic” and could lead to more cases and hospitalizations if the spread of the virus is not immediately suppressed, the head of the World Health Organization said on Monday.
The global health agency was alerted over the weekend to a new strain of Covid-19 discovered in Japan, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference. On Sunday, Japan’s National Institute of Infectious Diseases said it had discovered a new variant of coronavirus in four travelers arriving from Brazil.
The variant appears to have some of the same mutations as other strains found in the United Kingdom and South Africa, the institute said. These viral mutations, although extremely infectious, do not appear to make people more susceptible to the virus, health experts said.
The Japanese Institute for Infectious Diseases has said it is difficult to immediately determine how infectious the new strain is and the effectiveness of vaccines against it.
As viruses spread, they are expected to move over time as the peaks on their surface change, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, the CDC warns that it is not yet known how widespread the new mutations are.
“The more the virus spreads, the greater the chance of further changes in the virus,” Tedros said at the WHO headquarters in Geneva, noting that the new variants appear to be more contagious than previous strains.
“This can lead to an increase in cases and hospitalizations, which is extremely problematic for health workers and hospitals already close to the breaking point. This is especially true if social and public health measures are “They’ve already broken down,” Tedros said.
This is a developing story. Please come back later for updates.