GENEVA, December 29. /TASS/. The World Health Organization (WHO) thinks that the global community in 2021 should pay special attention to studies of new strains of the coronavirus, including those detected in the UK and South Africa and share research information on this subject, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday at a briefing in Geneva.

He emphasized that in 2021 the global community will face "new challenges" and "new variants of COVID-19." "At present, we are working closely with scientists all over the world to better understand any and all changes to the virus and how these changes affect its ability to spread or make people sick, or any potential impact on available tests, treatments and vaccines," the Director-General said. He urged to share promptly with the WHO and other countries "epidemiological, virological, and full genome sequence information" of the newly detected strains of the coronavirus. According to him, "we must ensure that countries are not punished for transparently sharing new scientific findings."