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<\/picture><\/a><\/p>\nThe Lambda variant, also known as C.37, is believed to have first emerged in Peru in August last year, but has only been recognized as a potential global threat in recent weeks,<\/strong>\u00a0with the World Health Organization (WHO) declaring it a variant of interest on June 17 after it appeared in several countries simultaneously.<\/p>\n The WHO said\u00a0the variant\u2019s \u201cneutralizing antibodies\u201d could increase its transmissibility or potentially increase its resistance<\/strong>. It was \u201cassociated with substantive rates of community transmission in multiple countries,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n In Peru, the Lambda strain now accounts for 82 percent of new infections. Meanwhile Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Mexico, have all confirmed widespread cases of the variant.<\/p>\n WHO virologist\u00a0Jairo Mendez-Rico told DW<\/a>\u00a0that although the strain may exhibit higher infection rates, there is no indication that it is more aggressive.<\/p>\n Mendez-Rico told the outlet that more data is needed to compare the newly labeled strain to other existing strains such as gamma (P.1) and delta (B.1.617.2), which have already been categorized by the WHO as variants of concern.<\/p>\n Jeff Barrett, director of the COVID-19 Genomics Initiative at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in the UK,\u00a0told the Financial Times<\/a>\u00a0that it is challenging to \u201cmake sense of the threat from Lambda, using computational and lab data\u201d because it has \u201crather an unusual set of mutations, compared with other variants.\u201d<\/p>\n According to the\u00a0Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a>, no cases of the Lambda strain have been recorded in the United States so far.<\/p>\n