Only One Strain Of Covid Variant Found In India Is “Of Concern”: WHO

Only one strain of the Covid-19 Delta variant first detected in India was now considered “of concern”, the WHO said.

Only one strain of the Covid-19 Delta variant first detected in India was now considered “of concern”, while two other strains had been downgraded, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.

The B.1.617 variant of the virus, which has been credited for the massive second wave of Covid-19 infections in the country, has been dubbed a triple mutant variant since it is split into three lineages.

Though the UN health agency had declared the entire strain a “variant of concern”, or VOC last month, but on Tuesday, it said only one of the sub-lineages deserved that label.

In its weekly epidemiological update on the pandemic, the WHO said: “It has become evident that greater public health risks are currently associated with B.1.617.2, while lower rates of transmission of other lineages have been observed.”

“We continue to observe significantly increased transmissibility and a growing number of countries reporting outbreaks associated with this variant,” the UN agency said.

“Further studies into the impact of this variant remain a high priority for WHO.”

A new hybrid variant announced by Vietnam’s health authorities on Saturday appears to be a variation of Delta.

WHO’s technical lead on Covid-19 Maria Van Kerkhove told reporters Tuesday: “What we understand is that it is this B.1.617.2 variant with one additional deletion in the location of the spike protein.”

“We know that the B.1.617.2, the Delta variant, does have increased transmissibility, which means it can spread easier between people,” she added.

The B.1.617.1 sub-lineage has meanwhile been downgraded to a “variant of interest,” and dubbed Kappa, as per WHO.

The B.1.617.3, according to WHO, is now not even considered of interest since “relatively few reports of this variant have been submitted to date.”