Indian Variant B.1.617 Is Of 'Global Concern'; WHO Says Data Transparency Must To Help Everyone On Time

The WHO's chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said, "people should go ahead and get whatever vaccine is available to them and that they are eligible for."

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New Delhi: The World Health Organization has classified the Covid-19 variant spreading in India as "of concern". The variant has cause a massive outbreak which is lef to some of the highest daily cases reported in the world. 

The UN body further said that the variant which is spreading faster than the original version might have some increased resistance to vaccine protections. This variant was first detected in October. 

“There is some available information to suggest increased transmissibility of the B.1.617,” Maria Van Kerkove, the WHO's lead on Covid-19, told reporters, also pointing to early studies "suggesting that there is some reduced neutralisation".

"As such we are classifying this as a variant of concern at the global level," she said, adding that more details would be provided in the WHO's weekly epidemiological update on Tuesday.

WHO until now listed the variant merely as a "variant of interest". Now it will be added to the list containing three other variants of Covid-19 -- those first detected in Britain, Brazil and South Africa -- which the WHO has classified as being "of concern". These variants are seen as more dangerous than the original version of the virus by being more transmissible, deadly or able to get past vaccine protections.

When it comes to the B.1.617 variant, Van Kerkove stressed that for the time being "we don't have anything to suggest that our diagnostics or therapeutics and our vaccines don't work".

WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan in an exclusive interview with the news agency ANI said that the country's spread "worrying" and called on the government to report actual numbers. According to Swaminathan, that the projections of one million deaths by August projected by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) are based on models and available data, which are not predictions of the future and can be changed.

"I would say that at this point in time, the situation is very worrying, the daily number of cases and deaths that we are seeing today in India and other countries in the Southeast area region is a big concern for us and we also realise that these are underestimates. Every country in the world, in fact, the number of cases and deaths has been underestimated to its true number," she told ANI, adding that governments should boost exercises to report actual numbers.

Soumya Swaminathan said studies were underway in India to examine the variant's transmissibility, the severity of the disease it causes, and the response of antibodies in people who have been vaccinated. The WHO scientist also urged data transparency in different countries and that people should be explained why certain decisions are being made and the rationale behind them.