The B.1.640 variant of coronavirus, discovered for the first time in France, is not yet widespread, it is under the supervision of the World Health Organization (WHO). This was announced on Thursday, January 6, by the organization’s expert Maria van Kerkhove during a briefing broadcast on the organization’s YouTube channel.
According to the WHO, this variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus was detected in a number of countries in September 2021, and in November the organization’s experts assigned it the status of a “variant under observation”. In France, this variant accounts for less than 1 percent of infections, van Kerkhove said.
“It is very important to track it, especially given the number of mutations it has, but it is not widespread at this time,” she said. At the same time, van Kerkhove did not provide data on the number of cases of infection with variant B.1.640 in the world.
Record rise in COVID-19 incidence
Meanwhile, the total number of coronavirus infections in the world over the past seven days has grown by 71 percent from the previous week, reaching a record 9.5 million amid the rapid spread of the omicron and delta variants. “Last week was the largest number of new cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a briefing. He noted that the organization believes the actual numbers could be much higher given the fewer tests conducted on holidays and the incomplete information from local health authorities.
In the Americas, the number of new infections with the SARS-CoV-2 virus has doubled over the past week, and in Europe by 65 percent.
In addition, 41,000 people worldwide died from coronavirus-induced lung disease and its consequences between December 27 and January 2. Since the beginning of the pandemic two years ago, the virus has been detected in about 289 million inhabitants of the planet, 5.4 million patients have died with a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19.
Omicron cannot be classified as lung
Gebreyesus noted that although the omicron variant of the coronavirus appears to be less severe than the delta variant, especially in vaccinated individuals, this does not mean that it should be categorized as lung.
WHO has once again criticized the uneven distribution of COVID-19 vaccines around the world, noting that 90 countries still do not have enough drugs to vaccinate 40 percent of the population.
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