WHO records the spread of a new strain of coronavirus "lambda"

Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) - The World Health Organization (WHO) has recorded the spread of the lambda coronavirus strain in more than 30 countries. Maria Van Kerkhove, the head of the technical group of the WHO Emergency Diseases Unit, spoke about this, the broadcast was carried out on the organization’s Twitter.

“The lambda strain is circulating in a number of countries, mainly in the Americas, although it has so far been found in more than 30 countries,” she said.

Van Kerkhove recalled that the WHO added the lambda variant to the list of strains of interest back in June; it was first registered in Peru in December 2020.

The WHO spokesperson also added that the organization is closely monitoring the strain and is working with Member States to obtain information on the spread of this variant of the coronavirus.

The lambda strain was previously discovered by scientists in South America, including Chile, Peru, Ecuador and Argentina. Experts believe it has several mutations in the spike protein that could possibly affect the infectivity of the virus.

To date, the organization’s list includes strains of the SARS-CoV-2 virus with the designations "alpha" (found in the UK), "beta" (South Africa), "gamma" (Brazil) and "delta" (India). The list also contains four strains - "eta" (first registered in the UK and Nigeria), "iota" (USA), "kappa" (India) and "lambda" (Peru).