WHO Classifies India’s COVID-19 Variant as a, Global Health Threat.<br />India has averaged about 391,000 new<br />cases of COVID-19 per day for the past seven days.<br />On May 10, an official from the World Health Organization<br />(WHO), Maria Van Kerkhove, spoke about the country's COVID-19 variant, B.1.617.<br />B.1.617 was previously labeled as a “variant of interest.”.<br />But Van Kerkhove revealed that the WHO<br />was reclassifying it as a “variant of concern.” .<br />She also said that preliminary studies on<br />B.1.617 have indicated that it transmits easier<br />and may be able to evade vaccines. .<br />The agency is expected to provide more details<br />on the reclassification in the coming days.<br />As such we are classifying this as a variant<br />of concern at the global level … Even though<br />there is increased transmissibility<br />demonstrated by some preliminary studies,<br />we need much more information about this<br />virus variant in this lineage in all of the sub<br />lineages, so we need more sequencing,<br />targeted sequencing to be done, Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s Technical<br />Lead for COVID-19, via CNBC.<br />The variant’s new label means it has been<br />shown to be more contagious, more deadly and more resistant<br />to available vaccines and treatments. .<br />The U.K., South Africa and Brazil variants are all also<br />designated as “of concern” by the WHO
