The Lambda variant of coronavirus was first detected end of the last year in Peru, which has the world’s highest death rate per capita, and now accounts for nearly 82 per cent of the country’s cases.
And in June, the WHO listed it as a “variant of interest”.
In April and May this year, the variant accounted for four in every five cases in Peru, and a significant proportion in neighbouring Chile, Argentina, and Ecuador.
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Of the UK’s eight cases, at least the first six were linked to foreign travel.
Australia’s first case was identified in June this year in a traveller who was forced to quarantine in a New South Wales hotel in April, national genomics database AusTrakka revealed.
Symptoms of the Lambda variant are similar to others, including fever, cough, and loss of smell and taste.
Are Vaccines Effective against new Lambda variant?
A team of researchers from the University of Chile stated over the weekend that the Lambda variant’s surface antigens had changed enough to escape antibodies produced in response to the Chinese Sinovac vaccine.
The mutated, named L452Q, is similar to the L452R type found in the Delta and Epsilon variants. Delta variant has become the UK’s leading “variant of concern” in recent months, despite the lack of firm evidence Delta variant is more deadly than previously-identified strains.
But a study published on Monday revealed that messenger RNA-type vaccines, such as the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna jabs, are still effective against the variant.
British health experts also backed that assessment, adding there was no indication Lambda was deadlier either.
But data from Peru showed a mortality rate from the new variant of nearly 600 per 100,000 or six percent — twice as high as the roughly three percent seen in other countries.
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PHE has, however, declared Lambda a “variant under investigation”. The UK is relying on the success of its immunisation programme to prevent a third wave of infections from translating into a spike in hospitalisations and deaths as the final lockdown restrictions are lifted later this month.
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