United Nations: The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said only B.1.617.2, one of the three strains of the B.1.617 COVID-19 variant first detected in India, is a variant of concern now and noted that lower rates of transmission have been observed for the other two lineages.
The B.1.617 variant was first detected in India and was divided in three lineages – B.1.617.1, B.1.617.2 and B.1.617.3.
In the COVID-19 Weekly Epidemiological Update published on Tuesday, WHO said available findings for lineages B.1.617.1 and B.1.617.2 were initially used to designate B.1.617 a global Variant of Concern (VOC) on May 11 this year.
Since then, it has become evident that greater public health risks are currently associated with B.1.617.2, while lower rates of transmission of other lineages have been observed, WHO said.
The UN health agency said that in order to reflect this updated information, B.1.617 has been delineated.
B.1.617.2 remains a VOC and labelled variant…