New Delhi: A new coronavirus strain known as “Mu”, which was first identified in Colombia in January, has been designated a variant of interest by the World Health Organisation.
After being detected in Colombia, Mu, known scientifically as B.1.621, has since been reported in other South American countries and in Europe.
“The Mu variant has a constellation of mutations that indicate potential properties of immune escape,” the global health body said Tuesday in its weekly pandemic bulletin.
Apart from Mu, there are four other variants of interest such as Eta, Iota, Kappa and Lambda.
The WHO’s weekly bulletin on the pandemic said the variant has mutations suggesting it could be more resistant to vaccines, as was the case with Beta, but that more studies would be needed to examine this further.
The United States has recorded 2,065 cases of the Mu variant, Colombia 582, Mexico 357 and Spain 473.