KABUL (SW) – The health ministry on Thursday said it lacks the resources and expertise to track the new variant of the coronavirus fast spreading across the world.
Ahmad Jawad Usmani, minister of health, told a press conference that fears exist this new variant might reach Afghanistan via Pakistan or India. He stressed no one should be allowed to enter Afghanistan, especially through these two countries without undergoing Covid-19 test.
Minister Usmani said the ongoing second wave of the pandemic might be longer than the first one, but it is less worrying in terms of the damage caused.
Fresh figures by the health ministry suggest out of 1412 individuals tested for the Covid-19 in past 24 hours, up to 85 proved to be carrying the virus. The figures suggest that six people lost their lives and 126 others recovered during this period in this connection.
The rapid spread of a new variant of coronavirus has been blamed for the introduction of strict tier four mixing rules for millions of people, harsher restrictions on mixing at Christmas in England, Scotland and Wales, and other countries placing the UK on a travel ban.
According to the BBC, Three things are coming together that mean it is attracting attention:
- It is rapidly replacing other versions of the virus
- It has mutations that affect part of the virus likely to be important
- Some of those mutations have already been shown in the lab to increase the ability of the virus to infect cells
All of these come together to build a case for a virus that can spread more easily.
ENDS
