WHO To Monitor B.1.621 Variant Of COVID-19, Forecasts Sings Of Vaccine Resistance

<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>New Delhi:</strong> In an attempt to eliminate COVID-19 globally, many countries have stepped up their vaccination drives. However, new COVID-19 variants are proving to be a hurdle towards their goal of ending the pandemic. A new variant of COVID-19, B.1.621 is now creating a new situation of panic all over the world.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">The World Health Organization (WHO) has been constantly monitoring new variants of COVID-19 and B.1.621 has been declared a 'variant of interest' by them. WHO claims that COVID-19 vaccines currently available would not be quite effective against this new variant. They also assured that they are keeping an eye on the nature and infectiousness of this mutation.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">WHO recently unveiled details on B.1.617, a new COVID-19 variant which was initially found in India back in December 2020. It is said to be more contagious than the original variant, initially found in Wuhan, China. Maria van Kerkov, a member of the WHO team working on COVID-19, said that this new B.1.617 variant of corona can spread rapidly amongst people and vaccines would not be quite effective against them.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">The WHO has also said that this new mutation may be infectious even for people who have been vaccinated and that additional research needs to be conducted to analyse this variant further. At the same time, experts are concerned that the emergence of this variant may accelerate new COVID-19 case count. COVID-19 cases are already on the rise due to the delta variant.</p>

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