Iran's National Committee on Combating Coronavirus discusses new mutated variant of COVID-19

TEHRAN, Iran, Dec. 22 Trend: A member of the Scientific Committee of the Iran National Committee on Combating Coronavirus said the new mutated variant of the coronavirus founded in UK may be spread in Iran since June. Referring to the genetic similarity of the new mutated Coronavirus in the UK with the virus that Iran had warned about several months ago, Minoo Mohraz told Trend that the coronavirus had mutated in our country since June, but we still do not know whether this mutated virus in Iran is the same virus that has just been found in the UK or not. She went on to speculate that the coronavirus has been mutated again. "We have been dealing with the mutated virus since June, which has been spread dozens of times faster than before so that all families were infected together,” she added. "We are constantly monitoring patients for the type of virus they have been infected with," Mohraz said. "It is possible that the newly mutated virus in the UK is the same mutated virus in Iran from June." She said that if the new mutated variant of the coronavirus in Britain has spread even more rapidly than the mutated virus in Iran. U.K. authorities are scrambling to contain a new mutated variant of the coronavirus that appears to be spreading rapidly. As yet, scientists don't know much about the new strain, but the fact that it appears to increase in prevalence rapidly even during lockdown is causing serious concern among the British government. Researchers and members of the scientific committee of the Iran National Committee on Combating Coronavirus have been warning about the existence of mutated variants of coronavirus in the country since June. Reza Malekzadeh, the former Deputy Minister of Health, warned in October about the spread of a new mutated variant of the coronavirus in Iran, which entered the country from Italy.