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- A WHO official said Monday it is reclassifying the highly contagious triple-mutant Covid variant spreading in India as a \u201cvariant of concern\u201d at the global level.<\/li>\n
- Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO\u2019s technical lead for Covid-19, said the agency will provide more details in its situation report Tuesday.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attends a press conference organised by the Geneva Association of United Nations Correspondents (ACANU) amid the COVID-19 outbreak, caused by the novel coronavirus, on July 3, 2020 at the WHO headquarters in Geneva.
Fabrice Coffrini | AFP | Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\nA World Health Organization official said Monday it is reclassifying the highly contagious triple-mutant Covid variant spreading in India as a \u201cvariant of concern,\u201d indicating that it\u2019s become a global health threat.<\/p>\n
Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO\u2019s technical lead for Covid-19, said the agency will provide more details in its weekly situation report on the pandemic Tuesday but added that\u00a0the variant,<\/a> known as B.1.617, has been found in preliminary studies to spread more easily than the original virus and there is some evidence it may able to evade some of the protections provided by vaccines. The shots, however, are still considered effective.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd as such we are classifying this as a variant of concern at the global level,\u201d she said during a press conference. \u201cEven though there is increased transmissibility demonstrated by some preliminary studies, we need much more information about this virus variant in this lineage in all of the sub lineages, so we need more sequencing, targeted sequencing to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nThe WHO\u00a0said last week<\/a>\u00a0it was closely following at least 10 coronavirus variants across the world, including the B.1.617. The variant was previously labeled a \u201cvariant of interest\u201d as more studies were needed to completely understand its significance, Van Kerkhove said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat it means for anybody at home is any of the SARS-CoV-2 viruses circulating can infect you and spread and everything in that sense is of concern,\u201d she said Monday. \u201cSo, all of us at home, no matter where we live, no matter what virus is circulating, we need to make sure that we take all of the measures at hand to prevent ourselves from getting sick.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n\n\n\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/image.cnbcfm.com\/api\/v1\/image\/106880647-1620664992631-106880647-1620664527377-gettyimages-1232805292-AFP_99N4AJ.jpg?v=1620665003&w=678&h=381\")
<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\nA Covid-19 coronavirus patient rests inside a banquet hall temporarily converted into a Covid care centre in New Delhi on May 10, 2021.<\/div>\nArun Sankar | AFP | Getty Images<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\nA variant can be labeled as \u201cof concern\u201d if it has been shown to be more contagious, more deadly or more resistant to current vaccines and treatments,\u00a0according to the WHO.<\/a><\/p>\n
The group issued a clarification Monday to their earlier remarks, saying that current data shows the existing Covid-19 vaccines \u201cremain effective at preventing disease and death in people infected with this variant.\u201d<\/p>\n
The international organization has already designated three other variants with the classification: B.1.1.7, which was first detected in the U.K. and is the most prevalent variant currently circulating throughout the U.S.; B.1.351, first detected in South Africa, and the P.1 variant, first detected in Brazil.<\/p>\n
B.1.617 has three sublineages, Van Kerkhove said, that will be described in the situation report Tuesday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nThe variant is believed by some to be behind the latest wave of infections in India.<\/p>\n
The country is averaging about 3,879 Covid deaths per day, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, though media reports indicate the official figure is being understated. It has\u00a0reported\u00a0an\u00a0average\u00a0of about 391,000 new cases per day over the past seven days \u2014 up about 4% from a week ago, Johns Hopkins University data shows.<\/p>\n
The variant has since spread to other countries, including the United States.<\/p>\n
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