New Covid-19 variant named 'Ihu' Identified In France

As the world grapples with the highly mutated Omicron variant of Covid-19, scientists have identified a new strain of the coronavirus in France.

Named IHU, the new B.1.640.2 variant has 46 mutations and has so far infected 12 people living in southeastern France.

The first case was linked to a person with a travel history to Cameroon, western Africa, researchers claimed in a paper published on medRxiv.

However, experts were quick to announce that just because a new variant had been discovered, that did not necessarily mean IHU will prove as infectious as other strains, including Omicron.

Many countries are currently experiencing a spike in COVID-19 cases driven by the Omicron variant which was first identified in November last year. Since then, the variant of concern has spread to over 100 countries.

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