Variant of Concern 202012/01

Bulgaria is 27th in coronavirus morbidity and 6th in mortality rate in the EU. We top mortality charts in the Balkans. The highest morbidity rates are documented in Vratsa, Pleven, Pernik.

That's what the Chief State Health Inspector, Assoc. Prof. Angel Kunchev said during the traditional briefing on the spread of the coronavirus in the country, BGNES reports.

European Union leaders will on Thursday seek to address the coronavirus pandemic's mounting challenges, from containing more infectious variants to the threat of border closures and the slow roll-out of vaccines across the bloc.

 A new, highly transmissible variant of the coronavirus first discovered in Britain could become the dominant variant in the United States by March, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned on Friday.

Japan is working to isolate and analyze a new variant of the coronavirus detected in four people who arrived from Brazil, a health ministry official said on Jan. 12.

Japan announced the detection of the new variant on Sunday, but officials have been at pains to emphasize there is no evidence yet that it is any more transmissible or dangerous than others.

The new highly transmissible coronavirus strain that has initially been detected in the UK has been confirmed in Romania in a 27-year-old woman, the Ministry of Health informs on Friday. According to the source, the patient is in a "very good" clinical condition, is in isolation at home, supervised by the family doctor, according to the methodology in force.

Proliferation of the highly contagious novel coronavirus strain, first detected in Britain, has now been confirmed in 41 countries and territories, the World Health Organization said in its COVID-19 Weekly Epidemiological Update on Tuesday evening.

Cyprus' Health Ministry says that a new variant of Covid-19 has been detected among confirmed coronavirus infections on the island nation.

The ministry said on Monday the country's Institute of Neurology and Genetics identified the variant VOC 202012/01 in one of 24 samples collected from individuals who had contracted Covid-19 in the last week of December.