Chinese expert eases fears over new variant detected in France

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Chinese expert eases fears over new variant detected in France; WHO says it's monitoring

Although a new variant of COVID-19, known as B.1.640.2 or the "IHU variant," which has been detected in France with 46 mutations and 37 deletions, raised some concerns over its transmission capacity as well as its potential threat, a Chinese expert believes that there is no need to panic while the World Health Organization told the Global Times that the variant is being monitored with little circulation.

In a preprint which has not been peer-reviewed published on medRxiv on December 29, 2021, researchers from IHU Méditerranée Infection in France said that a new variant was first detected from a patient who returned from Cameroon. The new variant has infected 12 people in southeastern France, according to the research. 

The Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution (TAG-VE) discussed the available information about the B.1.640.2 variant,including the preprint data,and its circulation in France and globally, and has decided to keep this as a "variant under monitoring,"  WHO said in a statement sent to the Global Times on Thursday.

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