According to the Malaysian health ministry, the lambda variant of the coronavirus has already spread to 30 countries including the UK and is becoming one of the leading cases of infection due to Covid. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has described the lambda as ‘variant of interest’.
Up to date, at least six cases of lambda has been recorded in the UK and all of them have been linked to overseas travel. The earliest report of the strain comes from Peru in December last. It is the dominant strain in the South American region with 81% of the samples carrying the strain. The strain is established to be resistant to antibodies and has a high transmissibility rate but WHO says that more data need to be obtained before establishing this fact.
