A COVID-19 variant spreading in India, which is facing an explosive outbreak, appears to be more contagious and has been classified as being “of concern,” the WHO said on Monday.
The WHO said that the B.1.617 variant of COVID-19 first found in India in October last year seemed to be transmitting more easily.
“There is some available information to suggest increased transmissibility of the B.1.617,” WHO technical lead on COVID-19 response Maria Van Kerkhove told reporters.
Photo: Reuters
“As such, we are classifying this as a variant of concern at the global level,” she said.
Early studies are “suggesting that there is some reduced neutralization,” meaning that antibodies appeared to have less impact on the variant in small-sample laboratory studies, she added.
However, the WHO said that it was too early to interpret this to mean that the variant might have more resistance to vaccines.
“Based on current data, the COVID-19 vaccines remain effective at preventing disease and death in people infected with this variant,” it said in a statement.
India’s daily coronavirus cases yesterday rose by 329,942, while deaths from the disease rose by 3,876, government data showed.
India’s total infections were at 22.99 million, while total fatalities rose to 249,992.
The devastating wave has overwhelmed the nation’s healthcare system, and experts have said the official figures for cases and fatalities are much lower than the actual numbers.
It has for some time been feared that the B.1.617 variant might be contributing to the alarming spread, but until Monday, the WHO had listed it merely as a “variant of interest.”
It has now been added to the list containing three other variants — those first detected in the UK, Brazil and South Africa — which the WHO has classified as being “of concern.”
They are seen as more dangerous than the original version of the coronavirus by either being more transmissible, deadly, or able to get past some vaccine protections.
Even if vaccine efficacy might be diminished against some variants, the jabs still provide protection against serious illness and death, the WHO said.
“We don’t have anything to suggest that our diagnostics or therapeutics and our vaccines don’t work” against this variant, Van Kerkhove said.
WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan agreed, urging a “balanced approach.”
“What we know now is that the vaccines work, the diagnostics work, the same treatments that are used for the regular virus work,” she said. “So there’s really no need to change any of those, and in fact ... people should go ahead and get whatever vaccine is available to them and that they are eligible for.”
Experts say that the more the virus spreads, the bigger the risk it will find ideal conditions to mutate in concerning ways, adding that everything must be done to rein in transmission.
“We will continue to see variants of concern around the world, and we must do everything that we can to really limit the spread,” Van Kerkhove said.
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