Lambda variant, deadlier than Delta, reported in 30 countries

A new COVID-19 strain called ‘Lambda’ is much more dangerous than the Delta variant, said the UK Health Ministry adding that it has been detected in more than 30 countries in the past four weeks.

On Monday, the Health Ministry tweeted, “The Lambda strain was reported to have originated from Peru, the country with the highest mortality rate in the world,” reported The Star.

It further reported that the Health Ministry had linked the report by the Australian news portal news.com.au saying the Lambda strain had been detected in the United Kingdom.

According to the portal, six cases of the Lambda strain have been detected in the UK to date.

However, the researchers are worried that this variant may be “more infectious than the Delta variant”, The Star reported.

Lambda accounts for nearly 82 per cent of the coronavirus case samples reported during May and June in Peru, Euro News reported citing the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO).

Recently, Public Health England in the UK reported a handful of cases caused by Lambda had been detected in the country and recognised it as having “a potential increased transmissibility or possible increased resistance to neutralizing antibodies”.

PAHO’s Regional Advisor on emerging viral diseases, Jairo Mendez, said on 30 June it had been detected in eight countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, “but sporadically in most countries”.

While it is clearly the dominant strain in Peru, in Chile, it accounts for more than 31 per cent of the samples from May and June, Euro News reported.

Mendez further stated that there was not yet clear evidence it was a more transmissible virus.

Meanwhile, the appearance of the Lambda variant comes amid a battle in Europe against the Delta variant, which was first discovered in India. Earlier, The World Health Organisation (WHO) termed the Delta variant as a ‘variant of concern’ (VOC).