WHO stresses vaccination as it classifies Indian mutation as ‘variant of concern’

A COVID-19 variant spreading in India appears to be more contagious and has been classified as being “of concern”, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday (10).

The UN health agency said the B.1.617 variant of coronavirus that was first found in India last October seemed to be transmitting more easily.

“There is some available information to suggest increased transmissibility of the B.1.617,” Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s lead on Covid-19, told reporters.

“We are classifying this as a variant of concern at the global level,” she added.

She also pointed to early studies “suggesting that there is some reduced neutralisation”, meaning that antibodies appeared to have less impact on the variant in small-sample lab studies.

The WHO insisted, however, that it was far too early to interpret this to mean the variant might have more resistance to vaccine protections.

“Based on current data, the Covid-19 vaccines remain effective at preventing disease and death in people infected with this variant,” it said in a statement.

The devastating wave has overwhelmed India’s healthcare system, and experts have said the official figures for cases and fatalities are much lower than the actual numbers. It has been feared that B.1.617 – which counts several sub-lineages with slightly different mutations and characteristics – might be contributing to the alarming spread of the virus in the country.

Until now, WHO has listed it merely as a “variant of interest”.

Van Kerkhove stressed that when it came to the B.1.617 variant, for the time being, “we don’t have anything to suggest that our diagnostics or therapeutics and our vaccines don’t work”.

The WHO’s chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan agreed, urging a “balanced approach.

“What we know now is that the vaccines work, the diagnostics work, the same treatments used for the regular virus work,” she said. “So there’s really no need to change any of those, and in fact... people should go ahead and get whatever vaccine is available to them and they are eligible for.”

Even if vaccine efficacy may be diminished against some variants of Covid-19, the jabs can still provide protection against serious illness and death.

Experts highlight that the more the virus spreads, the bigger the risk it will find ideal conditions to mutate in concerning ways, stressing that everything must be done to rein in transmission.