Two of the most recent Covid-19 variants identified on both sides of the border

Eleven cases of the two new variants of interest of Covid-19 have been identified on the island of Ireland.

While the dominant Delta variant continues to account for over 90 percent of cases sequenced on both sides of the border, six cases of the Mu variant and five of the Lambda variant have been identified.

Last month the World Health Organization added Mu, or B.1.621, to its list of “variants of interest” due to preliminary evidence that it can evade antibodies.

The variant was first identified in Colombia in January and spread rapidly there.

But while Mu has a number of mutations that suggest he might escape the protection provided by vaccines, to date there is little evidence that he can actually do so.

And while at one point it accounted for 40% of sequenced cases in Colombia, no Mu cases have been detected there in the past month. However, it has spread to 40 other countries.

Four Mu cases were sequenced in the Republic and two in North Ireland, according to Gisaid, an international consortium for tracking variants.

Peru is the country of origin of another variant, Lambda, which is related to the Alpha variant which dominated here at the beginning of this year. As with other suspicious variants, Lambda (also known as C.37) carries a number of mutations that could be problematic, including increased transmissibility and increased resistance to neutralizing antibodies.

While there is some evidence that Lambda can lead to more serious infection, it does not appear to possess any inheritance advantage over the dominant Delta strain.

It was, however, classified as a variant of interest by the World Health Organization last June.

Four cases of Lambda have been sequenced in the Republic and one in the North.

Another variant attracting attention is the C.1.2 lineage, after the South African authorities issued an alert about it.

This variant has not spread to a large extent, but scientists say it has mutations similar to those seen in other variants of interest.

Director of the National Reference Laboratory for Dr viruses Cillian De Gascun said this variant was worth watching to learn more about transmissibility, disease severity or vaccine efficacy.

Amino acid changes

He said that C.1.2 exhibited a significant number of amino acid changes in the spike protein, many of which were seen in other variants, and that it also appears to have more mutations at this point than expected.

So far, the virus has not met WHO criteria to qualify as a “variant of concern” or “variant of interest”.

None of the newer variants so far shows any signs of being “fitter” than the Delta variant, which is highly transmissible. And while revolutionary infections occur, vaccines are highly protective against serious illnesses caused by all known variants.