Seven Lambda COVID variants have been sequenced in Louisiana so far, all clustered in Northwest Louisiana with six coming from tests conducted at Willis-Knighton. While the number of sequenced Lambda variants is low compared to Delta (940), the new strain shows coronavirus is likely to continue evolving for some time.
LSU Health Shreveport Professor of Microbiology and Immunology Jeremy Kamil has investigated the new strain. He said Lambda is not an offshoot of the now-dominant Delta variant and is thought to have come from the Andes.
“It is a different lineage, so it emerged independent of Delta and this one is thought to have emerged from Peru,” said Kamil.
Lambda likely crossed the border from Texas where the variant is more prevalent and is thought to be responsible for a surge of cases in Peru, where it now is responsible for 97% of new cases. A third variant, B.1621 is also in rotation in the US right now. B.1621 powered a substantial surge in cases in Colombia, where it was first detected.
Kamil cautioned the public against panicking over the new variant. He said right now there’s not enough data to know whether Lambda is any more transmissible or virulent than other strains, but it’s worth monitoring.
“The emergence of a new variant can, sometimes, be a very active warning of an oncoming wave,” said Kamil who added that most positive COVID tests results are not sequenced for variants, meaning the real number of Lambda cases in the state is much higher than seven.
Contrary to some reports about Kamil said there’s no reason to believe that this new variant will bypass vaccines.
“We have every reason to believe based on all of the variants so far that the vaccines are protecting people incredibly well,” said Kamil.
The was a report suggesting Chinese vaccines were ineffective against Lambda in Peru, but Kamil says there’s no hard data to back that up, and the numbers could be misleading due to the country’s low 17% vaccination rate.
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