According to the experts, the Lambda variant
of the coronavirus appears to be more resistant to vaccines than the original
strain of the virus that started this ongoing pandemic.

A group of Japanese researchers said in a
paper that was published last Wednesday that people may not realize the threat
of the Lambda variant, which is currently labeled as a “variant of interest” by
the World Health Organization.

The researchers also revealed that when they
conducted the laboratory experiments, it was found that there are three
mutations in the variant’s spike protein that help it evade vaccine-induced
antibodies and two additional mutations make Lambda highly infectious.

“Lambda can be a potential threat to the
human society,” Reuters quoted senior researcher Kei Sato of the University of
Tokyo as saying.

It is still 
unclear whether the Lambda variant is more dangerous than the Delta
variant which is currently spreading rapidly in many countries.

The Lambda variant, also referred to as C.37,
was first detected in Peru in August 2020. It was classified as a “variant of
interest” on June 15 by WHO officials and was later classified as a “variant
under investigation” by the United Kingdom on June 23.

The first case of a COVID-19 infection caused
by the Lambda variant in the United States was reported by scientists at the
Medical University of South Carolina. The variant was found in a virus sample
taken in April from a Greenville patient.

As of Monday, a total of 937 cases due to the
Lambda variant have been sequenced in the US out of the 35,131,393 coronavirus
cases recorded since the start of the pandemic, IB Times reported.

But less than 2% of the total samples have
been sequenced in the country so the number of cases due to the variant could
be far higher.