Lahore: Vaccine resistant coronavirus variant, Epsilon was detected in Pakistan. The highly transmissible variant was first detected in California last year. As per researchers, the variant is resistant to all the Covid-19 vaccines. This is a major concern for India as the country shares a border with Pakistan.
The Punjab province in Pakistan has reported a sharp increase in the daily number of coronavirus cases. As per reports, at least 5 cases of the new variant were reported in Lahore city. The new variant is seen as the cause for the fourth wave of Covid-19 infection in Pakistan.
The variant is the second most detected covid variant in New York, USA. The Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) in the USA had earlier declared the variant which is also known as CAL.20C as a ‘Variant of Concern’ and later revised it to ‘Variant of Interest’. The World Health Organization (WHO) on July 6 declared the variant as ‘alerts for further monitoring’. At present, the variant is detected in 34 countries.
Also Read: Iran rejects Israel’s accusations over ship attack
As per a research study carried out by researchers at the University of Washington, the variant is 20% more transmissible than other Covid variants. The Epsilon variant is as highly transmissible as the Delta variant, detected in India.
As on Sunday, Pakistan reported 5,029 Covid-19 cases, the highest since April 29, when the country reported a total of 5,112 infections.
Post Your Comments