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What you need to know about the new strain of COVID-19 and how prepared is Qatar?
To address the reports of new strains of the virus found in the United Kingdom and South Africa, a news briefing was held by the WHO (World Health Organization) on Monday, December 21, 2020.
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyuses, Director General WHO, said in his opening remarks that the UK and South Africa reported new variants of the COVID -19.
He said that naturally, viruses mutate from time to time and that this new virus transmits more easily but it does not mean that it is more deadly.
He also confirmed that scientists are studying and exploring how this change will affect the behavior of the virus.
All governments and their citizens must take every precautionary measure to stop the spread of this strain so that the virus has less opportunity to change and we have more opportunity to contain and overcome it, the WHO Director-General stressed.
COVID-19 is actually a disease caused by the virus called SARS CoV-2. Naturally, it has many variants and according to scientists and healthcare professionals, it has been mutating as the pandemic has raged through populations. All of those mutations/variations are called different strains of the virus. Luckily, these strains rarely change so it is very easy to detect them with a single test which makes it insignificant what strain anyone might have.
What you need to know about it living in Qatar and how prepared is Qatar?
The difference between the old and the new strain is that the new one is more infectious, i.e. it is quicker to spread and cause infection but this does not mean it is more deadly by any evidence as Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General WHO commented in the news briefing.
According to health experts, the spike-shaped structures around the virus called the spike proteins have changed (mutated) in the new strain but the good news is that the spike protein in this new strain is not enough to fool the human immune system. So it is expected that the vaccine will be completely effective against this new strain.
Qatar has been working above and beyond to protect the health of its citizens and residents amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
The Ministry of Public Health, Qatar announced the arrival of the First shipment of Pfizer and BioNtech’s Covid-19 vaccine. In a press conference, senior officials from the Ministry of Public Health confirmed that Qatar will begin its COVID-19 vaccination campaign from Wednesday, December 23, 2020, click here to know more about the priority and other details of the vaccination campaign.
Also, click here to know about the revised Green list of countries to facilitate the quarantine policy and COVID-19 travel restrictions to people arriving in Qatar from these countries.
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