Geneva (AFP)
The variant of the Covid-19 virus discovered in India, B.1.617, was classified as "worrying", announced Monday the World Health Organization, in particular because it is more contagious.
"There is information that B.1.617 is more contagious" but also evidence that it may make vaccines less effective, and "therefore we classify it as a variant of global concern", said declared Doctor Maria Van Kerkhove, technical manager of the fight against Covid-19 within the WHO.
The scientist explained that more details will be published Tuesday in the weekly epidemiological report of the UN agency but that there is still a lot of research to be carried out on this variant, in particular through increased sequencing, "to know how much of this virus circulates "but also the degree of" severity "with which it attenuates the effectiveness of vaccines.
"We have nothing to suggest at the moment that our diagnostics, our drugs and our vaccines are not working. And that is important", she stressed, insisting on the fact that we must continue to apply health measures such as social distancing, wearing a mask, reducing contact, etc.
A vaccine with reduced efficacy does not mean that it does not fulfill a protective function against the most serious forms of Covid-19 and prevents deaths.
"We will continue to see worrying variants and we must do everything possible to limit transmission, limit infections, prevent contagion and reduce the severity of the disease," she insisted.
This variant is one of the reasons - but far from the only - which explains the explosion of the pandemic in India and the worst hotbed of the pandemic in the world today.
According to official statistics, some 4,000 people currently die each day from Covid-19 in India, where the total toll of the epidemic is close to 250,000 deaths.
Many experts consider these figures lower than reality, citing in particular data from crematoriums.
The unaccounted for victims are particularly numerous now that the current epidemic outbreak has spread outside the big cities, into rural areas where hospitals are scarce and keep their registers little up to date.
© 2021 AFP