GENEVA / ZURICH (Reuters) – The World Health Organization warned of widespread alarm about a new, highly contagious variant of the coronavirus that has surfaced in Britain, saying it was a normal part of the evolution of a pandemic.
WHO officials have even shed a positive light on the discovery of the new species that prompted a slew of alarmed countries to impose travel restrictions on Britain and South Africa, saying new tools to detect the virus were working .
“We have to find a balance. It’s very important to have transparency, it’s very important to tell the public as it is, but it’s also important to make it clear that this is a normal part of the evolution of viruses, ”said Mike Ryan, head of the WHO emergency, during an online briefing.
“Being able to track a virus so accurately, so accurately and scientifically in real time is a really positive development for global public health, and the countries that conduct this type of surveillance should be commended.”
Referring to data from Britain, WHO officials said they had no evidence that the variant made people sicker or more deadly than existing strains of COVID-19, although it did seem to spread more easily.
Countries that imposed travel restrictions acted out of an abundance of caution in assessing risk, Ryan said, adding, “That’s sensible. But it is also important that everyone recognizes that this is happening, these variants do occur. “
WHO officials said mutations in the coronavirus have so far been much slower than in influenza and that even the new British variant was much less transmissible than other diseases such as mumps.
They said vaccines designed to combat COVID-19 should also treat the new variants, although controls were underway to make sure this was the case.
“So far, although we have seen some changes, some mutations, none have had a significant impact on the susceptibility of the virus to currently used therapies, drugs or vaccines under development and we hope that will be the case. continue, ”WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan told the briefing.
The WHO said it expects to get more details about the potential impact of the highly transmissible new coronavirus strain within days or weeks.
Reporting by Emma Farge in Geneva and Michael Shields in Zurich; Written by Josephine Mason; edited by Mark Heinrich