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A new Covid strain has now been spotted in 31 countries after a latest case was recorded on Australian shores.
The Lambda strain caught the attention of the World Health Organization after it was spotted in the UK, US and Germany.
Thought to originate in Peru, the lethal strain made up almost 81 per cent of the country’s cases since April.
Doctors in the South American nation claimed it is more transmissible than any other variant because of how quickly it has spread over the past four months.
Sequencing in the country and neighbouring Chile, where the most cases of the strain have been recorded, is poor compared to the UK and US.
It only accounts for 0.3 per cent of infections in the US and less than 0.1 per cent in Britain.
Coronavirus-tracking researchers are yet to uncover proof the virus is actually any more contagious than existing strains, including Delta or ‘Delta Plus’.
Others also insist there is no evidence to suggest it is deadlier, despite some doctors linking its spread to Peru having the world’s worst Covid mortality rate.
The Lambda variant was detected in a traveller undergoing hotel quarantine in New South Wales in April, according to the national genomics database AusTrakka.
Medical personnel remove the corpse of a Covid-19 victim from Honorio Delgado Hospital in Arequipa, Peru where the Lambda variant accounts for almost 81 per cent of the country’s cases since April
The strain was marked as a ‘variant of interest’ by the World Health Organisation on June 14 due to its high transmissibility (pictured, a woman getting the Pfizer vaccine in Sydney)
The Lambda variant was first was detected in a traveller undergoing hotel quarantine in New South Wales in April
The strain, also known to scientists as C.37, was marked as a ‘variant of interest’ by the WHO last month because of its high transmissibility.
There is no evidence to suggest the strain has started to spread among the community in Australia.
Professor Pablo Tsukayama, of Cayetano Heredia University, said the strain has ‘exploded’ in Peru, with the new variant responsible for 82 per cent of current cases.
He told the Financial Times that it made up just one in every 200 samples back in December, when it was first spotted.
‘That would suggest its rate of transmission is higher than any other variant,’ Professor Tsukayama said.
Other experts have also raised concerns about the variant.
Dr Jeffrey Barrett, head of Britain’s Covid-19 Genomics Initiative at the Welcome Sanger Institute, told the FT: ‘Lambda has a unique pattern of seven mutations in the spike protein that the virus uses to infect human cells.
‘Researchers are particularly intrigued by one mutation called L452Q, which is similar to the L452R mutation to contribute to the high infectiousness of the Delta variant.’
Fears about its severity were first raised by the Malaysian Health Ministry.
It reportedly tweeted yesterday: ‘The Lambda strain was reported to have originated from Peru, the country with the highest mortality rate in the world.’
It noted that researchers are worried that this variant may be ‘more infectious than the Delta variant’, Malaysian news websites claimed.
Public Health England made Lambda a ‘variant under investigation’ in June after six cases were detected in returned travellers.
Two new cases have since been detected in the UK.
Chilean scientists who studied blood samples taken form health workers originally found the Lambda variant had the L452Q mutation.
The mutation is similar to the L452R mutation in the Delta and Epsilon variants which researchers believe make it more infectious.
University of Queensland virologist Kirsty Short said more research was needed before classifying Lambda as more infectious than the Delta variant.
‘It’s very preliminary,’ said Dr Short told the ABC.
‘It’s a good starting point, but I certainly wouldn’t infer anything from that into the clinic.’
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