The health ministry is in the process of collecting samples of the current outbreak to send them to Bangkok for analysis. The health minister said the ministry is currently waiting for a confirmation from Bangkok. The minister added the ministry is keeping a close watch on the variants which are of concern across the world. Currently, there are five variants of concern globally. A virus is considered a variant of concern if there is evidence of an increase in transmissibility, more severe disease, a significant reduction in neutralisation by antibodies generated during previous infection or vaccination, reduced effectiveness of treatments or vaccines and diagnostic detection failures.
“If you look at the two past outbreaks, in both the cases we re-examined what the variants are and similarly we are doing it for the third lockdown right now. We are taking samples and shipping them to Bangkok for analysis and looking at the possible variants we have. As of now, I think there are five variants of concern that we are worried about and we will closely monitor these,” said the health minister.
Meanwhile, the double mutant version of COVID-19, also known as B.1.617, is wreaking havoc across India. Thousands of lives are lost every day with hundreds of thousands hospitalised. According to the Prime Minister, His Majesty The King is currently in the south to assess the risk. Lyonchhen said the risk of importing this variant is very high because of the porous border the country shares with India. Lyonchhen also added that the import of foreign workers has been suspended because of this concern.
Phub Gyem
