As the novel coronavirus continues to ravage all world countries, South Korea's public health authorities have claimed to have found three new mutated strains of the pathogen among imported cases. According to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), two of these cases from Pakistan, and one came from Uzbekistan.
KCDC chief Jeong Eun-kyeong revealed that all these three people were self-isolated upon entering South Korea, and they have not come to contact with any people in the country.
Coronavirus scare continues
South Korean health authorities revealed that these new mutations are different from the 78,810 viral genome sequences registered at the GISAID database. KCDC made this finding after analyzing sequenced genomes of 776 coronavirus patients, that include 597 infections within the country, and 179 from foreign countries.
Jeong revealed that more studies should be carried out to understand the level of infectivity and the spreading capability of these three new mutated strains.
In the meantime, the country has recorded 28 more coronavirus cases, thus raising the total number of coronavirus positive cases in the country to 14,626.
The dilemma surrounding developing a vaccine
It was around a few weeks back that researchers at the Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China, identified more than 30 different strains of coronavirus. The finding made by the Chinese team literally shocked medical experts, and they revealed that the global healthcare sector has literally underestimated the mutation capabilities of coronavirus. As various strains of COVID-19 has affected people in different parts of the world, it could be very difficult to find an overall cure for the pathogen.
In the meantime, the total number of coronavirus cases in the globe has crossed 20 million, and the death toll is nearing 7,40,000. Even after seven months of the outbreak, the United States continues to top the coronavirus chaos chart with more than 5.1 million positive cases and 1,65,000 deaths.
