New COVID-19 variant 40-70 percent more transmissible: WHO

After VK Paul, Head of the National COVID-19 Taskforce said there was no need to panic over the new strain of the coronavirus discovered in the UK, Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri suggested that the suspension of flights from the country was only temporary and the situation will be reviewed over the next four to 5 days.

To find out more about the new strain, CNBC-TV Managing Editor Shereen Bhan spoke to Roderico Ofrin, India Head of WHO. Ofrin said that as of now the new mutation has been identified in the UK, South Africa, Denmark, Iceland, Netherlands and Australia.

He added, "The UK health authorities have detected it and reported it to the WHO and it is being studied. What we know as of now is that this variant is causing a 40 to 70 percent more transmissibility but laboratory studies are needed to find out if they are causing more severity of the disease or if they are more fatal."