COVID in Norway: New variant of Delta strain detected

According to the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH), a new variant of the Delta COVID-19 strain has been detected in Norway.

The NIPH reported the first case of this new strain in late June, which has now spread across Norway. The strain is said to be more dangerous than the regular Delta virus, yet COVID vaccines do not lose their efficiency against it.

Senior Researcher at NIPH, Karoline Bragstad, was noted as saying, “We have no data that the vaccine does not work against this variant; there are no significant reasons for concern.”

This variant is recognized internationally as AY.63 and is labeled as “first seen in Norway”.

Currently, Norway has reported over 229,300 cases of COVID-19.