What you need to know about the COVID-19 Lambda variant
On Sunday, August 15, the Department of Health (DOH) announced that the first case of the COVID-19 Lambda variant has been detected in the Philippines.
The person infected with the first case of the Lambda variant in the country is reportedly a 35-year-old female.
DOH said that she was asymptomatic and has now recovered after undergoing a 10-day isolation period.
The incident is a local case, meaning the woman is not a returning overseas Filipino, so she contracted the Lambda variant here in the country.
DOH is now conducting contact tracing and investigation on the case.
What is the lambda variant?
The COVID-19 Lambda variant was first documented in Lima, Peru back in December of 2020.
On June 14, 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) labeled the Lambda variant or C.37 as a Variant of Interest (VOI), meaning they have detected the presence of concerning genetic changes in the variant.
Is it more transmissible and vaccine-resistant?
In the Weekly Epidemiological Update of Who published on June 15, 2021, it was reported that the Lambda variant has the potential to spread faster and be vaccine-resistant.
“Lambda carries a number of mutations with suspected phenotypic implications, such as a potential increased transmissibility or possible increased resistance to neutralizing antibodies,” WHO wrote.
In a preprint paper posted ahead of peer review on bioRxiv, it revealed that laboratory experiments found that three mutations in the Lambda variant, namely RSYLTPGD246-253N, 260 L452Q and F490S, help it confer resistance to antiviral immunity, while two other mutations, T76I and L452Q, make the variant highly infectious.
How fast is it spreading?
According to the latest GISAID report, the Lambda variant has already been detected in 40 countries (Philippines not yet included in the list).
Chile, Peru and the USA recorded the highest number of Lambda or C.37 variant cases, with all three of them having more than 1,000 total cases so far.
Chile has reported 1,435 cases, while Peru has 1,212 and the USA has 1,074.
According to also to a preprint paper published on medRxiv, in April of 2021, the Lambda variant accounted for 97% of the Peruvian public genomes.
Other countries that have reported more than 100 cases of the COVID-19 Lambda variant are Ecuador, Mexico, Spain, Argentina, and Germany.
Lambda variant and vaccine effectiveness
More studies need to be conducted to confirm that the Lambda variant is indeed vaccine-resistant since most of the published reports so far are still subject to peer review.
At the moment, the Variants of Concern (VOC) listed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CC) include the Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Gamma variants.
The CDC also emphasized that the Delta variant spreads faster and causes more severe illness in unvaccinated people than other previous variants.
The good news is that the COVID-19 vaccines continue to be highly effective in preventing hospitalization and deaths, including against the dreaded Delta variant.
Plus, fully vaccinated people who get breakthrough COVID-19 infections of the Delta variant are only infectious for a shorter period.
The CDC also underlined that are best armors that we have against COVID-19 are still getting fully vaccinated and wearing face masks, especially indoors in public places.
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