A new strain of Covid-19 has been declared a Variant of Interest by the World Health Organisation.
The Mu variant, or B.1.621, was first identified in Columbia earlier this year and has now been identified in South America and Europe.
The World Health Organisation has declared the ‘Mu’ strain of Covid-19 a ‘Variant of Interest’.
The new variant, also know as B.1.621 was first identified in Colombia but has since spread to part of South America and Europe.
Here is what we know so far:
What has WHO said about the Mu Covid variant?
The WHO’s weekly bulletin on the pandemic explained that the variant has mutations which could make it more resistant to vaccines.
This was also the case with the Beta variant, first discovered in South Africa, but the WHO has said more studies will be needed to examine this new strain further.
An update from WHO said: “Since its first identification in Colombia in January 2021, there have been a few sporadic reports of cases of the Mu variant and some larger outbreaks have been reported from other countries in South America and in Europe.
“Although the global prevalence of the Mu variant among sequenced cases has declined and is currently below 0.1 per cent, the prevalence in Colombia (39 per cent) and Ecuador (13 per cent) has consistently increased.
“The epidemiology of the Mu variant in South America, particularly with the co-circulation of the Delta variant, will be monitored for changes.”
Mu variant fifth Covid variant of concern monitored by WHO
The Mu variant is the fifth VOI being monitored by the WHO, along with strains from Peru, the US and India.
These variants all have genetic changes that are predicted or known to affect the transmissibility of the virus, the disease severity and immunity.
The ability of these strains to spread more quickly, and potentially evade vaccines, means they pose an emerging risk to public health.
A variant is then categorised as a Variant of Concern (VOC) if it is deemed to pose a significant global health risk, meaning it is highly transmissible and public health and social measures are less effective against it.
There are four coronavirus VOCs currently being monitored by the WHO. These include:
- The Alpha variant, first identified in Kent and now evident in 193 countries
- The Beta, first identified in South Africa and now evident in 141 countries
- The Gamma variant, first identified in Brazil and now evident in 91 countries
- The Delta variant, first identified in India, and now evident in 170 countries
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article