The World Health Organization (WHO) today confirmed that the variant B.1.617 of the Coronavirus that causes covid-19, which was first identified in India last October, has become the fourth to be considered “of concern”.

This decision was taken in consultation with a working group that followed the evolution of the virus from analyzing more than 4,500 genetic sequences from the 44 countries where this variant was discovered.

It comes to the extension The fourth alternative is a concern By whom. The others are B.1.351 detected in May 2020 in South Africa, B.1.1.7 which was initially identified in September in the UK, and P.1. It is found in November in Brazil.

The World Health Organization, in its weekly epidemiology report, published today, states that the last alternative to joining the most worrisome group that requires close monitoring contains three subspecies.

Scientists note that these are subspecies It appears to have a higher transmission rateWhich corresponds to the rapid increase in its spread in many countries.

In its report, the World Health Organization notes the existence of preliminary evidence indicating this This variable could reduce the effectiveness of monoclonal antibody therapy And “slightly reduces the susceptibility to neutralization of antibodies”, which is produced through vaccination.

It is suspected that the strong and rapid increase in cases in India may be due to the circulation of this variable, but a recent WHO assessment of the situation in this country indicates that the causes are multiple.

One of them could be the increase in cases of this type, which may increase transmission of the virus, but the massive religious and political gatherings and increased social contact in general have had an effect as well.

India recorded the largest increase in COVID-19 cases last week, with 2.7 million new infections, equivalent to a 5% increase.

Brazil comes right next, with 423,000 new cases recorded, and the United States, with 334,000, an increase of 3% compared to the previous week.

Turkey ranked fourth in the number of new cases, with a total of 166,000 cases, although it was an improvement because this represented a decrease of 35%, as was Argentina, which decreased by 141 thousand cases per week, by 8%.

The number of cases of Covid-19 virus in the United States has reached 158.6 million and the number of deaths has reached 3299,764 so far, according to data from the World Health Organization.