The World Health Organization (WHO) is currently monitoring the new COVID-19 variant called “Mu” or known by scientists as B.1.621 — and was first identified in Colombia.
According to WHO, this COVID-19 virus mutation has the potential to evade immunity provided by a previous infection or vaccination.
They also stated that it has been added to their list of variants of interest on August 30, in which the strain needs further study to confirm whether it will prove to be more contagious, more resistant or even deadlier to current vaccines and treatments.
“Preliminary data presented to the Virus Evolution Working Group show a reduction in neutralization capacity of convalescent and vaccine sera similar to that seen for the Beta variant, but this needs to be confirmed by further studies,” WHO said.
The international health organization is currently monitoring four Variants Of Concern (VOC) which are Delta, Alpha, Beta, and Gamma. These concerning variants are generally defined as a mutated strain that is highly contagious, fatal or resilient to current vaccines and treatments.
WHO is also conducting a close watch on the remaining four variants of interest (VOI): Eta; Iota; Kappa; and Lambda; These VOI, including Mu, are identified to have genetic changes that could make it more threatening than the other variants.
The agency highlighted the importance of conducting further studies to understand the clinical characteristics of the new variant.