Lambda: New COVID-19 'variant of interest' - All you need to know

As the global COVID-19 tally is slowly coming down, with lesser infections reported every day, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has designated another variant, labelled as 'Lambda', as a 'Variant of Interest' (VOI).

In its weekly bulletin, WHO mentioned that "Lambda has been associated with substantive rates of community transmission in multiple countries, with rising prevalence over time concurrent with increased COVID-19 incidence". 

Notably, Lambda was initially detected in Peru in August 2020 and has since been reported in 29 countries around the world, mostly in Latin America, including Argentina and Chile. The bulletin says, "Lambda carries a number of mutations with suspected phenotypic implications, such as a potential increased transmissibility or possible increased resistance to neutralizing antibodies."

The WHO bulletin read, "On 14 June 2021, a variant assigned to Pango lineage C.37, GISAID clade GR/452Q.V1, NextStrain clade 20D, was designated as a global VOI, and assigned the WHO label Lambda."

Lambda Variant - South American countries

WHO also said that the Lambda variant's "elevated prevalence" has been noted particularly in South America in countries such as Chile (31 percent overall prevalence among submitted sequences 7 since first detected in this location to date), Peru (9 percent), Ecuador (8 percent), and Argentina (3 percent).

In Peru, 81% of coronavirus cases since April 2021 were associated with Lambda, WHO said, adding that Argentina reported an increasing prevalence of Lambda since the third week of February 2021 and that between April 2 and May 19, the variant accounted for 37 percent of the COVID-19 cases.

Lambda Variant: What does WHO recommend? 

"Virus evolution continues to be expected, and the more SARS-CoV-2 circulates, the more opportunities it has to evolve. Reducing transmission through established and proven disease control methods such as those outlined in the COVID-19 Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan, as well as avoiding introductions into animal populations, are fundamental to and crucial aspects of the global strategy to reduce the occurrence of mutations that have negative public health implications," WHO said.