EXPLAINED: Meet Kappa And Lambda, The Newest Sars-CoV-2 Variants That Experts Are Tracking Closely

News18 ^ | 6-29-21 | News18

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Beta has followed Alpha and they were joined by Gamma and Delta, too, as WHO-designated Variants of Concern (VoC) of the novel coronavirus. While the world is warily tracking the spread of the Delta variant, or B.1.617.2, which was first identified in India in October last year, India itself is worried about Delta-plus. But the march of variants seemingly continues unabated and experts have in recent days said an eye must be kept on the Kappa and Lambda variants, too, both of which have been labelled as Variants of Interest (VoI) by WHO.

WHAT IS KAPPA? It is a variant that is linked to the B.1.617 lineage of mutations that has also given rise to the Delta variant. B.1.617 has been found to carry more than a dozen mutations of which two stand out: E484Q and L452R, which is why this variant has also been called the “double mutant".

WHAT IS LAMBDA? The C.37 variant, better known as Lambda, its name as per the WHO designations based on the letters of the Greek alphabet, is the newest VoI identified by the UN health agency. It was first identified in Peru in December last year and has so far been detected in samples from about 26 countries shared with GISAID. The highest number of samples submitted is from Chile followed by the US. Peru is third on the list.

However, no samples so far from India have been of the Lambda variant.

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