(Photo : Getty Images/Simon Dawson - Pool)
BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND - JUNE 05: Jess Baddams, paramedic, holds a blood sample as she poses for a photograph during an antibody testing program at the Hollymore Ambulance Hub of the West Midlands Ambulance Service, operated by the West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, on June 5, 2020 in Birmingham, England. The British government is providing antibody testing to NHS and care home staff as part of the first phase of its antibody testing programme. The blood tests, which can only be performed my trained medical practitioners, detect the presence of antibodies to COVID-19 to determine if a person has unknowingly contracted the virus and consequently developed an immune response.
The World Health Organization (WHO) warned against significant alarm over a new, highly infectious COVID-19 variant that has been detected in Britain. The agency indicated that this is a normal part of the evolution of the pandemic.
Normal Part of Virus Evolution
WHO officials stated the emergence of the new strains that prompted a series of alarmed countries to impose travel limitations on the United Kingdom and South Africa indicates that new tools to detect the novel coronavirus were working.
According to WHO emergencies chief Mike Ryan, "We have to find a balance. It's very important to have transparency, it's very important to tell the public the way it is, but it's also important to get across that this is a normal part of virus evolution. Being able to track a virus this closely, this carefully, this scientifically in real-time is a real positive development for global public health, and the countries doing this type of surveillance should be commended," reported CGTN.
Meanwhile, the scientist who created the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine remarked he is confident that his candidate will work against the new coronavirus variant that surfaced in the UK.
Chief executive of BioNTech and Professor Ugur Sahin indicate further studies were being initiated to evaluate whether the vaccine provokes full protection against the new variant.
According to the European chief, the WHO will congregate in a meeting of members to discuss measures to counter the new, more infectious COVID-19 strain that emerged in the UK.
He did not specify the meeting's date, reported Hindustan Times.
The European Union's 27 member states will make efforts to coordinate measures on links to the UK, upon dozens of countries suspending travel in the midst of alarm over the new COVID-19 variant.
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Most of the team has acted individually so far.
The UK was increasingly isolated on Monday as nations across the globe rushed to close their doors to the island country after a the new infectious strain's emergence.
Citing data from the UK, WHO officials remarked that there is no evidence yet that the variant made people sicker or more fatal than existing COVID-19 strains. However, it seemingly spreads more easily.
Nations imposing travel curbs were acting out of vigilance as they surmise risks. Ryan added, "That is prudent. But it is also important that everyone recognizes that this happens, these variants occur," reported NBC News.
The new strain prompted the UK to close its borders and enact more rigid restrictions.
According to Maria Van Kerkhove, an American infectious disease epidemiologist, the reproduction rate of this new COVID-19 variant has increased from 1.1 to 1.5.
Meanwhile, BioNTech Chief Executive Ugur Sahin stated on Monday he was assured that the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine would be effective against this new variant. According to Sahin, the German company would probe into the mutation in the following days, but he viewed the subject with a "degree of soberness."
WHO officials remarked COVID-19 mutations had been far slower than with influenza and that the new UK variant has been less transmissible than other illnesses, including mumps.
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