In its weekly pandemic report, World Health Organization has informed that it is monitoring a new coronavirus variant called “Mu” which was first identified in Colombia in the month of January. After that, it has been reported in other parts of the world like Europe and in South American countries.
Mu, is scientifically known as B.1.621, and is classified as a “variant of interest.” With the addition of Mu, there are five variants of interest now – Iota, Eta, Kappa, Lambda and Mu. WHO has mentioned that the new variant has mutations that carry a risk of resistance to vaccines and its global prevalence has declined to less than 0.1 percent among sequenced cases. However, in Colombia, it’s prevalence is at 39 percent. Mu has immune escape properties as it has a constellation of mutations. Further studies are needed to better understand it, mentioned the WHO bulletin.
