COVID-19 crisis: Indian, South African variants detected in Americas, says WHO expert
The four most worrying coronavirus variants have been detected in virtually all countries and territories of the Americas, but although they are more transmissible there is no evidence they are more lethal, a World Health Organization expert said
Reuters | May 14, 2021 | Updated 08:10 IST
The newest variant, the Indian B.1.617 variant, has been detected in cases in eight countries of the Americas, including Canada and the United States. The four most worrying coronavirus variants have been detected in virtually all countries and territories of the Americas, but although they are more transmissible there is no evidence they are more lethal, a World Health Organization expert said on Thursday.
This comes just days after the Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that UK is set to go ahead with stage three of the roadmap out of lockdown, which will enable the return of domestic overnight stays, indoor hospitality, indoor entertainment and indoor adult sport from 17 May.
On Friday, Public Health England classified the Indian variant of Covid-19, called B.1.617.2, as a variant of concern , adding that the variant is at least as transmissible as the dominant Kent variant in the UK. The Indian variant has two other closely-related variants referred to as B.1.617.1 and B.1.617.3.
Despite the success of the vaccine rollout in the UK, it currently remains unclear whether the Indian variant can reduce the efficacy of the Covid vaccine.
PETALING JAYA: An individual who was detected with the Indian Covid-19 variant (B.1.617) in the country only tested positive for the virus two weeks after arriving here from overseas, says Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.
The Health director-general said that the individual, who eventually died of the disease, had arrived in Malaysia on April 7.
Tests conducted on the individual, who is a non-citizen, on April 7 and 12 were negative, said Dr Noor Hisham.
“He was reported to be positive on April 21 when he was brought to the Emergency Department when he was experiencing serious Covid-19 symptoms. His health deteriorated and he died on May 1, ” Dr Noor Hisham said in a Facebook post on Wednesday (May 12) night.
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The World Health Organization yesterday said the new Indian COVID-19 variant responsible for the fast acceleration of explosive outbreaks in India had been detected in dozens of countries worldwide.
AN NDTV report said that according to the UN health agency, the new strain identified as B.1.617 variant of COVID-19, originally discovered in India in October 2020, had been detected in over 4,500 samples uploaded to an open-access databank from 44 nations in all six regions of the WHO.
In its weekly update on the COVID-19 crisis, WHO said it received reports of detections from five countries more. Outside of India, WHO said Britain had reported they had the largest number of COVID-19 cases caused by the said new strain.