The B1617 COVID-19 Variant Has Become More Prevalent Globally & Could Worsen the Pandemic

Unfortunately, in this age of next to no international travel, viruses continue to travel the globe and flex in our faces. That’s why we wear masks. So they can’t see our faces while they flex.

The B1617 COVID-19 variant, for example, which originated in India but has since spread globally, is becoming increasingly prevalent worldwide, according to The Straits Times.

New Variant Spreading Worldwide

The new variant of concern (VOC), which is believed to have fuelled the large spike in India’s COVID-19 cases earlier this month, contains mutations that facilitate its spread from person to person, and may slightly weaken the protection offered by vaccines.

According to Professor Teo Yik Ying of the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, “what is frightening is the speed at which this variant is able to spread and circulate widely within the community, often surpassing the capability of contact-tracing units to track and isolate exposed contacts to break the transmission chains.”

The World Health Organisation (WHO)’s chief scientist assessed that the variant is up to two times more transmissible than the original strain of the coronavirus discovered in Wuhan, China, and is now found in more than 50 countries.

The severity of infections caused by the new variant, however, remains unclear due to the lack of controlled studies that allow for a clear comparison of the strain’s impact.

There are three variants of the mutation, in case you haven’t had enough long numbers for today: B16171, B16172, B16173. The second variant appears to be the most transmissible, while the third continues to be rare.

Vaccines Remain Best Solution, But Global Rollout Not Optimistic

Research by the New York University (NYU) in the US found that the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, the two types used in Singapore, remain effective against B1617. 

A separate study by Public Health England has also found that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is about 88% effective against B16172, while the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, which is not used here, is about 60% effective.

However, the pandemic can only truly be over if the whole world is sufficiently vaccinated against the virus, with WHO’s European director Hans Kluge believing that 70% of the world’s population must be vaccinated.

Unfortunately, many countries’ vaccine rollout schemes remain highly inadequate, with some yet to administer even a single dose, since supply can get tangled up with political concerns and can be expensive to procure and distribute.

According to Prof Teo, therefore, large-scale vaccination remains exclusive to advanced economies. 

Richer countries are urged to provide greater support to the COVAX programme, which is a WHO-initiated global project to supply poorer countries with vaccines that they may not receive otherwise.

This is especially crucial as, without rapidly immunising as many people as possible, more dangerous mutations may emerge in countries less protected against COVID-19, which can quickly endanger the whole world.

Feature Image: Andrii Vodolazhskyi / Shutterstock.com