The WHO not too long ago listed B.1.617 — which counts a number of sub-lineages with barely totally different mutations and traits — as a “variant of interest”.
The World Health Organization mentioned Tuesday {that a} variant of COVID-19 feared to be contributing to a surge in coronavirus instances in India has been found in over a dozen nations.
The U.N. well being company mentioned the B.1.617 variant of COVID-19 first found in India had as of Tuesday been detected in over 1,200 sequences uploaded to the GISAID open-access database “from at least 17 countries”.
“Most sequences were uploaded from India, the United Kingdom, USA and Singapore,” the WHO mentioned in its weekly epidemiological replace on the pandemic.
The WHO not too long ago listed B.1.617 — which counts a number of sub-lineages with barely totally different mutations and traits — as a “variant of interest”.
But up to now it has stopped wanting declaring it a “variant of concern”.
That label would point out that it’s extra harmful that the unique model of the virus by as an illustration being extra transmissible, lethal or in a position to dodge vaccine protections.
India is dealing with surging new instances and deaths in the pandemic, and fears are rising that the variant could possibly be contributing to the unfolding disaster.
The explosion in infections in India — 350,000 new instances had been recorded there on Tuesday alone — has pushed a surge in world instances to 147.7 million.
The virus has now killed greater than 3.1 million folks worldwide.
The WHO acknowledged that its preliminary modelling based mostly on sequences submitted to GISAID signifies “that B.1.617 has a higher growth rate than other circulating variants in India, suggesting potential increased transmissibility”.
It careworn that different variants circulating at the identical time had been additionally exhibiting elevated transmissibility, and that the mix “may be playing a role in the current resurgence in this country.”
“Indeed, studies have highlighted that the spread of the second wave has been much faster than the first,” the WHO mentioned.
It highlighted although that (*17*) could possibly be contributing to the surge, together with lax adherence to public well being measures in addition to mass gatherings.
“Further investigation is needed to understand the relative contribution of these factors,” it mentioned.
The UN company additionally careworn that “further robust studies” into the traits of B.1.617 and different variants, together with impacts on transmissibility, severity and the chance of reinfection, had been “urgently needed”.
