New strain of coronavirus in 8 European countries
A new variant of the coronavirus named VOC-202012/01 has been recently detected in 8 European countries. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has now called for more preventive measures to counter the situation.
Key Points
- Contrary to the previous strains of COVID-19 seems to spread in younger age groups.
- This new variant of the coronavirus is more transmissible as compared to the existing variants.
- This new variant was first detected in the United Kingdom.
- On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organisation declared COVID-19 as a pandemic.
- As of now, there are 79,712,010 global cases of coronavirus, and 1,747,790 deaths have been reported as per the Johns Hopkins University.
- The United States is the most affected country with COVID-19. The US is followed by India and Brazil.
World Health Organisation (WHO)
It is a specialized UN agency that looks after international public health. The organization was established in the year 1948 and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.
Recently, the WHO has released the World Malaria Report 2020 covering 87 countries. As per the report, there were 229 million malaria cases in 2019.
Countering COVID-19
Recently, the Indian government signed an agreement with the World Bank for providing social assistance to people severely impacted by the coronavirus. This was a loan agreement for a $400 million project, which is the 2nd operation out of the series of two. The first operation of $750 million was approved in the month of May.
The Indian government and the New Development Bank (NDB) have signed a loan agreement of $1,000 million for the economic recovery of India from COVID-19.