A new dangerous variant of the coronavirus, similar to the so-called lambda strain SARS-CoV-2, was discovered in the south of Brazil. This is reported in an article in the electronic library medRxiv. The so-called lambda strain SARS-CoV-2 was first isolated in Peru at the end of last summer.. Before the emergence of the Indian variant of the coronavirus, the lambda strain accounted for the majority of infections in Peru and about a third of new COVID-19 cases in Argentina and Chile. Its genome contains a set of eight key mutations, presumably increasing the infectiousness of the virus.. A group of Brazilian doctors led by Priscila Wink, a researcher at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre, for the first time recorded traces of the presence of the lambda variation of SARS-CoV-2 in Brazil and discovered a new variant of this version of the virus.

When doctors deciphered the genome of the virus, they found that it possesses all eight key mutations characteristic of the Peruvian strain of SARS-CoV-2, and also identified two dozen other changes in the structure of the genome that are not characteristic of most other varieties of the " As previously reported, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine listed the most dangerous coronavirus variants to date. Five COVID strains are dangerous: Wild (L) - first recorded in China in December 2019; Alpha (B. 7) - first discovered in the UK in December 2020; Beta (B. 351) - first recorded in South Africa in December 2020; Gamma (P. 1) - first found in Brazil in January 2021; Delta (B. 617) - first discovered in India in April 2021. COVID-strain Delta is twice as infectious as usual - WHO Author: 1.