Nagpur: The World Health Organization (WHO) said it is monitoring a new Coronavirus variant known as ‘Mu’, which was first identified in January in Colombia.
According to a report, the cases of the new variant have been recorded in South America and Europe.
The Mu variant is scientifically known as B.1.621 and is considered as a “variant of interest” by the WHO, as claimed by the global health body on Tuesday.
WHO further said that that new variant indicates a risk of resistance to the Covid-19 vaccines and needs to be studied further to understand the variant better.
WHO’s health bulletin states that the Mu variant has a constellation of mutations that indicate potential properties of immune escape.
“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,” it further added.
At present, there are four coronavirus variants which are considered to be ‘variant of interest’—the Alpha variant, Beta variant, Delta variant (which the experts claim is the reason behind India’s second wave of Covid-19 and the Mu.
“Although the global prevalence of the Mu variant among sequenced cases has declined and is currently below 0.1%, the prevalence in Colombia (39%) and Ecuador (13%) 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,” WHO said.
