Vietnam’s health minister said yesterday a newly detected coronavirus outbreak, which has infected 301 people and spread to 10 provinces and cities, is caused by the more contagious British variant of the coronavirus.

“The new variant is spreading fast, we have to be faster,” Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, who heads the Covid-19 taskforce, said at a government meeting.

“We should not be so worried about the spike in the number of cases. The most important thing is contact tracing. We have to stay vigilant but not panic.”

Six days after the virus re-emerged in the northern province of Hai Duong, the cluster there is under control, Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long said, according to a government statement.

Containing the virus in the capital, Hanoi – where 20 new cases have been detected – will take longer, he added.

With the new variant, Long said, each infected person may infect about 10 people compared to five in the last waves that Vietnam has tackled.

Thanks to targeted mass testing and strict quarantining, Vietnam has kept its virus tally to a low 1,882 cases and 35 deaths, winning plaudits worldwide for one of the most successful national responses to the pandemic.

Testing capacity

“Hanoi has to increase measures to contain the virus. The health ministry will support the city to upgrade testing capacity to 40,000 tests per day,” Long said.

Hanoi has taken 15,000 samples since the latest outbreak and currently has capacity to conduct 5,000 tests a day, an official from Hanoi’s health department said on Monday.

Vietnam approved a vaccine from AstraZeneca PLC on Saturday after Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said the country must have one in the first quarter.

The coronavirus has killed more than 2,249,934 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to an AFP tally based on official sources.

100 million vaccinated

More than 100 million vaccines have been given around the world, an AFP tally from official sources found yesterday.

But none of the world’s 29 poorest countries has formally started mass vaccination drives, while the richest nations have provided more than two-thirds of jabs administered.

Russian jab has ‘high efficacy’

Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine is 91.6% effective against symptomatic Covid-19, says an analysis published in The Lancet.

Independent experts say the preliminary findings allay transparency concerns over the jab, which Moscow is already rolling out.

Fake shot gang busted

Chinese police arrest more than 80 people involved in a scam selling saline solution as vaccine as the country races to give shots to 50 million before the Lunar New Year holiday on February 12.

‘Ambush lockdowns’

Hong Kong’s leader defends “ambush lockdowns” — where neighbourhoods are sealed off and residents tested — after a spate of overnight operations uncovered no new cases.