LONDON – An unseen variant of novel Covid-19, that’s experts believe is’vaccine-resistant’ and more dangerous than other variants, has beendetected in more than 30 countries around the globe.
World Health Organization (WHO) classified the strain as a C.37 which issaid to be a ‘variant of interest’. Reports in international media citedthat Lambda strain has already been detected in around 30 countries whileseven of them are Latin American.
Experts believe that at least 82 percent of Covid cases in Peru are due tolambda variant and it is also being found in one in three confirmed casesin Chile. The ‘deadlier than other’ strain is reportedly spreading hastilyin Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, and Mexico.
The strain, first found in Peru, puzzled experts with its unusual mutationsas available data referred to the strain as more transmissible than theAlpha, Delta, and Gamma variants.
In addition, experts also feared that COVID vaccines may not offersufficient protection against this strain.
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A report quoting the researchers from the University of Chile cited that‘Data show for the first time that mutations present in the spike proteinof the Lambda variant confer escape to neutralising antibodies andincreased infectivity.’
Meanwhile, a WHO virologist Jairo Mendez-Rico told a French news outletthat ‘so far we have seen no indication that the lambda variant is moreaggressive. It is possible that it may exhibit higher infection rates, butwe don’t yet have enough reliable data to compare it to gamma or delta.’
Experts believe that the ongoing Covid pandemic won’t be over until atleast 80 percent of the world’s population has been vaccinated and furthervariants could continue to emerge in the near future.
