New strains of coronavirus expand their geography

The more infectious coronavirus strain VOC 202012/01, originally discovered in the UK, has been identified in five more countries over the past week, bringing the total number to 106, according to the weekly epidemiological bulletin of the World Health Organization (WHO), Report informs.

The geography of the 501Y.V2 strain found in South Africa has expanded to 56 countries, and the P.1 strain, whose presence was originally detected in Brazil and Japan, now circulates in 29 countries, and their number hasn’t increased over the past seven days.

The VOC 202012/01 strain has been identified since Feb. 23 in five more countries, and as of March 2, a total of 106 countries in all six WHO regions have reported cases of the disease caused by this variant of coronavirus.

Moreover, the ‘local transmission’ of this strain was recorded in 42 countries.