Tribunnews Reporter, Fitri Wulandari
TRIBUNNEWS.COM, MOSCOW – World Health Organization (WHO) revealed that the agency had placed the new variant of the coronavirus (Covid-19) which was first discovered in Russia on its ‘extra watch’ list.
The variant now joins eleven other unnamed mutations.
It should be noted that this strain was actually first detected in January, but it was considered quite worrying after entering this July.
So the WHO decided to put it on the list.
Quoted from the page Russia Today, Sunday (11/7/2021), according to the WHO classification system, this variant will be determined first for ‘further monitoring’, before finally being considered an ‘interesting variant’, then changing status as a ‘variant of concern’.
If the newly discovered variant in Russia shows more serious criteria, it will be given the name ‘Greek letter’, such as Alpha, Beta, Delta to Lambda variants.
Until recently, this Russian variant was known only as AT.1.
WHO said that they would not label this variant as the ‘Russian’ variant, in accordance with the organisation’s policy.
“No country should be stigmatized for identifying and reporting variant findings,” the WHO said.
In addition to the variants found in Russia, the list also includes other variants that were first discovered in Brazil, the United States (US) and the Philippines.
Russia is currently experiencing a new wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In recent weeks, the country has seen an increase in positive cases and is now regularly reporting more than 20,000 new infections per day.
The death rate also increased significantly.
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