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In recent days, in offices or public areas across the country, coughs are heard everywhere; Even though many people have signs of cold, fever, and stuffy nose but no one thought about testing against Covid-19. They are all indifferent to the Covid-19 epidemic.
They thought even if they have Covid-19, they will soon recover because they have got vaccinated meanwhile, reoccurrence of Covid-19 epidemics in many countries around the world continue to occur due to new variants. This warned us not to be negligent; especially in the context that Vietnam has recorded the appearance of the XBB variant in the Southern Province of Tay Ninh and Ho Chi Minh City. This is considered a complex variant because the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant can evade immunity, even in those vaccinated against the virus and spread faster than other variants of the Omicron strain.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), so far, over 500 different variants have been recorded, currently, the Omicron variant is the dominant variant of cases worldwide with many sub-variants such as BQ. 1 (with 23.3 percent), BA.5 (with 20.6 percent), BA.2.75 (with 6.8 percent), XBB (with 3.3 percent), BA.4.6 (with 2.8 percent) and some other minor variations. The XBB variant was recognized worldwide in October 2022 and has since spread to more than 70 countries.
Recently, the sub-variant XBB.1.5 is causing a new outbreak in the US, with the incidence of this variant increasing from 4 percent to 41 percent, of which nearly half of these cases were caused by the XBB sub-variant 1.5. This variant is the fastest spreading substrain ever detected in 28 countries and it is expected that the Covid omicron XBB and XBB.1.5 variant will rapidly become dominant because it is highly immune evasive and appears more effective at binding to cells than related subvariants in the near future.
SAR-CoV-2 virus strains mutate rapidly, bringing challenges to global scientists in researching and producing effective vaccines. In Vietnam, the health sector predicted that in the coming time, the development of the Covid-19 epidemic will be rapid due to strains and sub-variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus as immunity from vaccination decreases over time plus the opening and easing of epidemic prevention policies of some countries around the world.
Many people have not forgotten the painful past in 2021, Vietnam and countries around the world went through a painful period when the Covid-19 pandemic broke out. At that time, when everyone was excitedly celebrating Tet and celebrating spring season, the first 2 cases of Covid-19 were recorded on the father and son of Wuhan (China) in Ho Chi Minh City. Since then, the country’s health system started stressful days to fight the disease.
Although there had been many warnings about this dangerous disease before, no one thought about the situation that all life activities were disturbed, and mandate social distancing had to be imposed nationwide. Similarly, during the approaching Tet holiday when people’s demand for travel surges, infection cases will be likely to increase.
To cope with the new wave of the Covid-19 epidemic, in addition to encouraging people to get additional vaccines, controlling the arrival of people from foreign countries has been applied in many countries. The Ministry of Health had field visits to check and monitor epidemic prevention at border gates when China opened its borders and lifted the quarantine.
Therefore, people should take the precaution of the preventative measures by strictly following the recommendations such as donning a mask in public and washing their hands regularly.
