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The Delta variant of Covid-19 continues to dominate in Riverside County but new variants are emerging, including the Lambda variant, which is now in California. Experts say Lambda could be more infectious and resistant to vaccines than the initial coronavirus strain, but it isn't yet called a "variant of concern" in the U.S. or by the World Health Organization. Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at University of California San Francisco, said the Lambda mutation is predominant in South America right now, making up 80 to 90 percent of new cases in Peru – but it's spreading in the...

Throughout the pandemic, the coronavirus has spawned a multitude of mutations: from the once-dominant Alpha variant to the still-raging Delta strain. But with California and the country still in the grips of another COVID-19 surge, a new alphabetized entry — Lambda — has been raising fresh questions about whether it, too, might feature characteristics that could trigger dangerous shifts in the dynamic pandemic landscape. Lambda, which was first identified in Peru, is worth watching because "it has had massive spread in South America," according to Dr. Benjamin Pinsky, director of the Clinical Virology Laboratory at Stanford University. When exposed to...

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which is responsible for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has caused almost 4.5 million deaths worldwide and infected almost 211 million as of August 19, 2021. To date, millions of doses of the COVID-19 vaccines have been deployed globally, which has significantly reduced the rate of infections, hospitalizations, and deaths from COVID-19. Despite these efforts, emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants that evade neutralization by antibodies to earlier lineages have threatened the efficacy of current vaccines. A new study published on the preprint server bioRxiv* explores the mechanism by which the SARS-CoV-2 lambda variant has...

While the delta variant of the coronavirus has quickly become the dominant strain in the United States, it’s not the only variant circulating in the population. The lambda variant, first identified in Peru, is also making headlines as it has started to be identified in several states. Houston Methodist Hospital reported its first case of the variant this week. Scientists at the Medical University of South Carolina recently announced they had found the variant in a virus sample taken in April. According to a database for scientists tracking coronavirus variants, fewer than 700 cases of the lambda variant have been...

Investigators in Chile conclude that the lambda COVID-19 variant is not only more infectious than standard SARS-CoV-2, but could also possibly shrug off vaccines. The first case in the United States has been spotted at Houston Methodist Hospital. A COVID-19 variant that proves to be resistant to vaccines keeps medical experts, public health officials, and health care professionals—including infection preventionists—on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic up at nights. There’s no reason to sound the alarm yet, but there may—just may—perhaps be reason to think that there’s a chance that the alarm may have to be sounded at some point...

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Researchers have detected a variant of coronavirus, first found in South America, in wastewater in southern Nevada, suggesting it is spreading in the community. Scientists at UNLV have found the Lambda variant, or C.37, in samples, Dr. Edwin Oh, an associate professor at the school’s Neurogenetics and Precision Medicine Lab, told the I-Team. Southern Nevada Water Authority scientists take samples from wastewater to see how much coronavirus is in our sewer system. Oh and other researchers analyze the samples, which help public health leaders find spikes and clusters before they can be identified through traditional testing...

Scientists fear that a highly contagious new COVID-19 variant that is ravaging Peru may be resistant to vaccines. The Lambda mutation, or C.37, appears to have emerged in Peru last August — and is now being blamed for the country having the highest pandemic death rate in the world. The concerning strain has since spread to around 30 countries, mostly in Latin America — but also as far as the UK, which has recorded at least eight cases, according to government figures. There are no known cases of the Lambda strain in the US, according to the Centers for Disease...