The Strategist

WHO reveals new dominant strain of coronavirus



06/21/2021 - 04:00



An Indian strain of coronavirus is highly likely to become dominant in the world, says WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan, quoted by The Straits Times.



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Public Domain Images
A new delta variant of COVID-19 is beginning to dominate the world because of its higher prevalence, the WHO spokesperson said.

On May 26, it was reported that the WHO allowed the possibility that the Indian strain of the coronavirus to spread to dozens of countries. WHO reported that the spread of the B.1.617 strain has been officially confirmed in at least 53 countries. In addition, evidence from the organisation indicates that this variant of the coronavirus has been detected in seven additional countries. Thus, the new strain may already be circulating in 60 countries.

In May, Maria Van Kerkhove, head of the Emerging Diseases and Zoonosis Unit at WHO, said the organisation had raised the risk level of a triple-mutated strain of coronavirus from India. 

Experts admitted that it had become a global concern. This means that the Indian strain has turned out to be similar to viruses found to be the most contagious, deadly or resistant to vaccines and treatments. The reason for this is that the mutated infection is spreading much faster than the original SARS-CoV-2 strain.

source: straitstimes.com