With multiple variants of the coronavirus already circulating in Canada, it is not surprising that a new one has now been identified. The variant is responsible for 11 cases in the country so far, according to Health Canada.
The World Health Organization (WHO) designated Lambda as a “variant of interest” on June 14. This designation means the resulting mutations are believed to affect the virus’s transmissibility and severity and are causing “significant community transmission or multiple COVID-19 clusters” in multiple countries.
“Lambda has been associated with substantive rates of community transmission in multiple countries, with rising prevalence over time concurrent with increased COVID-19 incidence,” reads an epidemiological update from the WHO released on June 15.
The Lambda variant, also called C.37, was first identified in Peru in August 2020, according to Global News. It has since spread to 29 countries, including Canada and the United States.
The WHO says Lambda is now accounting for an increasing share of cases in some South American countries like Argentina and Chile.
Keep in mind that Lambda is still only a “variant of interest.” To become a “variant of concern,” the virus would have to be shown to be more transmissible, cause more severe illness, or be able to get around existing vaccines and treatments.
CBC Canada is reporting that Dr. Lucas Castellani, an infectious diseases specialist at the Sault Area Hospital in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario says, “There are mutations on the spike protein portion of the virus, which as we know is one of the important pieces of the virus, and the mutations are slightly different than some of the previous mutations we’ve seen.”
“That said, what we don’t know is what all of this means.”
Dr. Anthony Chow, professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia’s division of infectious diseases, also cautioned that the strain has the potential to turn into a variant of concern.
“It is highly transmissible, and that it has been a hallmark of variants of concern — the way they spread,” said Chow.
The best defense against any of the variants to date is being vaccinated. A recent lab study done in the U.S. has been published online but has not yet been peer-reviewed. It suggests that the “vaccines in current use will remain protective against the lambda variant and that monoclonal antibody therapy will remain effective.”
