December 21 WHO held a regular press conference on COVID-19. WHO Director-General Tedros Tedros said that the virus will change over time, which occurs naturally and is expected.
The United Kingdom reports that the virus after this mutation is more likely to spread, but there is no evidence that it is more likely to cause serious illness or death. WHO is working with scientists to understand how mutations affect viral behavior.
Tedros stressed the need to contain the spread of all COVID-19 as soon as possible, the higher the spread of the virus, the more opportunities for the virus to change, and that all governments and all people need to take preventive measures to limit the spread of the virus.
WHO: Most testing tools are not affected by COVID-19 mutations
WHO held a regular press conference on COVID-19. The reporter of the station asked the representative of the WHO whether the variant of the novel coronavirus in the United Kingdom would affect testing.
Maria van Kohoff, technical director of the WHO health emergency project, said that some mutations appeared in spiny protein (S pike protein), most current detection tools target multiple targets on the gene sequence, and viral mutations do not affect such detection.
But there are a few tests that only target a single target on the viral gene sequence. Such tests may be affected by viral mutations. The effectiveness of all the detection tools used in the UK is now being studied.
There is no indication of the impact of this COVID-19 variant on treatment, and research is under way.
WHO: The coronavirus variant reported in the UK has spread locally in September.
WHO held a regular press conference on COVID-19. Maria van Kohoff, technical director of the WHO Health Emergency Project, said in response to questions from the station that British researchers found an increase in the spread of the virus in southeastern England from late November to early December, and the local Interventions have been taken to alert them.
By studying the case characteristics and viral gene sequences, the researchers found this variant named “B117” and carried out a retrospective analysis of cases in the southeastern part of England, and found that some cases existed in September. British researchers reported the analysis to the WHO on 14 December and reported the transmission power of virus variants late last week. Research is still under way in the UK.
WHO: The transmission power of COVID-19 variants found in the UK has increased. The transmission index has increased from 1.1 to 1.5.
WHO held a regular press conference on COVID-19. Maria van Kohoff, technical director of the WHO Health Emergency Project, said that several British research institutions are studying the impact of COVID-19 variants on transmission, pathogenicity and antibody response.
Current data reported in the UK show increased transmission of this COVID-19 variant, with the transmission index rising from 1.1 to 1.5. The UK is determining how much of the impact comes from the viral variant itself and the differences in individual behavior after contracting this variant.
WHO: Coronavirus variants found in South Africa have nothing to do with the British coronavirus variants
WHO held a regular press conference on COVID-19. Maria van Kohoff, technical director of WHO’s health emergency project, said that another variant of COVID-19 has also been found in South Africa, which is different from that of the United Kingdom.
Although it appeared at the same time, it seemed to be related to each other, but it was an unrelated variant. South Africa has informed WHO of the preliminary results of some studies.
WHO: Cases of COVID-19 variants in the UK have emerged in many countries
WHO held a regular press conference on COVID-19.
Maria van Kohoff, technical director of the WHO Health Emergency Project, said that countries have now launched virus sequencing to look for cases infected with the variant of the novel coronavirus found in the United Kingdom, and such cases have appeared in some countries, including Australia, Iceland, Italy, the Netherlands and Denmark.
WHO: British mutant strains are more likely to spread, and the vaccine is still effective.
Regarding the recently reported variants of the coronavirus strain in the United Kingdom, WHO officials said at a press conference held on the 21st that it is normal for scientists to develop variants of the virus, and scientists are conducting in-depth research on it.
The key remains to take government-wide and whole-community action to curb the spread of the virus as much as possible.
WHO Director-General Tedros Tedros said that it is normal that the virus strain has been mutating. At present, British reports say that mutant strains are more likely to spread, but there is no evidence that the severity and mortality rate caused by new strains are higher. WHO is working with scientists to study the impact of genetic changes in viral strains on virus transmission.
Tedros stressed that every effort is still needed to be made to take the necessary measures to curb the spread of the virus. The more serious the virus spreads, the greater the probability of mutation of the virus strain.
Maria Van Kelkhofer, Technical Director of the WHO Health Emergency Project, said that what is available now shows that the variant of the virus in the United Kingdom is more transmitted, and the basic number of virus regeneration (R0) has increased from 1.1 to 1.5, but the patient’s symptoms, severity and mortality have basically unchanged. At present The vaccine developed is still effective.
At present, research on this variant is still being studied, but the basic prevention and control measures are the same. We should further strengthen the prevention and control measures and strictly implement comprehensive prevention and control measures, so that the novel coronavirus can still be controlled.
According to real-time statistics of the World Health Organization, as of 17:58 CET on December 21 (December 22, the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide has increased by more than 570,000 compared with the previous day, reaching 575551, and the number of confirmed cases worldwide has exceeded 75.7 million, reaching 75 704,857 cases.
More than 1.69 million COVID-19 deaths were reported worldwide, reaching 169,061, an increase of 9,267 cases from the previous day.
WHO: The situation of the British variant of COVID-19 is controllable, so there is no need to panic too much.
December 22 According to a report by Reuters on December 21 local time, the World Health Organization pointed out on the same day that you should not panic too much about the more transmitted variant of the novel coronavirus found in the United Kingdom.
The situation has not yet got out of control. This is a normal phenomenon in the evolution of the epidemic and can be controlled by relevant measures.
“It is important to maintain transparency and to keep public informed, but it is also necessary to understand that this is normal for the virus to evolve,” Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO health emergency planning, said in his briefing.
“The ability to track the virus closely, carefully, and in real time is a truly positive development for global public health,” Ryan said.
World Health Organization officials cited British research data and pointed out that there is no clear evidence that the mutant of the virus has a higher lethality rate, although it seems to be more likely to spread.
Ryan also mentioned that the variant of the novel coronavirus has so far been much slower than the flu, and that even the new British variant is much less infectious than other epidemics such as mumps.
WHO officials even commented positively on the discovery of the new strain, saying that the mutant virus prompted many countries to impose travel restrictions on the United Kingdom, which has played a positive role in tracking the virus. WHO said that more in-depth research on highly transmitted variants of viruses will be carried out in the next few days or weeks.
Recently, British Health Secretary Hancock said that the new strains of highly infectious COVID-19 found in the UK have been out of control, and the government announced that the epidemic prevention and control level will be raised to level 4.
After the news came out, Germany, Italy, France and other European countries suspended flights to and from the United Kingdom one after another.
