Covid-19 Australia: Strain more transmissible than Delta hits Australia

A worrying new strain of Covid-19 that is more transmissible and possibly more vaccine-resistant than Delta has been detected in Australia.

The world’s most transmissible Covid-19 strain has found its way into Australia – with worrying research revealing it may be even more infectious than the Delta variant.

The Lambda strain has puzzled World Health Organisation (WHO) scientists after it spread to nearly 30 countries in the last four weeks. The mutation was originally discovered in Peru and is related to 81 per cent of the country’s cases since April.

Lambda was last month declared a ‘Variant of Interest’ by the WHO, which noted that it was “associated with substantive rates of community transmission in multiple countries.”

Peru currently has the highest covid mortality rate of anywhere in the world.

Almost all social restrictions related to Covid-19 are anticipated to end in England on July 19. Picture: Hollie Adams/Getty Images

In Australia, the variant was detected in an overseas traveller who had been in NSW hotel quarantine in April, according to national genomics database AusTrakka.

Early research shows it had not spread among the community in Australia.

Lambda has just started to make its way into the community in the UK, which has reported eight cases of the strain to date.

It is a worrying sign for the UK, which has recently relaxed Covid-19 restrictions after 37 million people received at least one dose of a vaccine.

The country had returned to normality in recent weeks, with pubs flooded by revellers enjoying their country’s recent success at Euro 2020.

However, these civil liberties could change if the highly transmissible Lambda strain spreads across the community.

Cayetano Heredia University Professor Pablo Tsukayama said the strain has exploded in Peru, with the new variant currently making up 82 per cent of cases in the South American country.

In virus-ravaged Peru, nearly 10 percent of those recorded as being infected end up dying, with a death rate of nearly 600 for every 100,000 citizens, data shows.

“That would suggest its rate of transmission is higher than any other variant,” he said.

His claims were backed up by a report by Jeff Barrett from London’s Covid-19 Genomics Initiative at the Welcome Sanger Institute.

Compulsory mask wearing is expected to end soon in the UK. Picture: Hollie Adams/Getty Images

“Lambda has a unique pattern of seven mutations in the spike protein that the virus uses to infect human cells. Researchers are particularly intrigued by one mutation called L452Q, which is similar to the L452R mutation to contribute to the high infectiousness of the Delta variant,” he told the Financial Times.

At least one of these mutations appears to be shared with the Delta variant, making them both highly contagious.

There is also concerning research that current vaccines are not as effective in neutralising the new strand, according to a report from scientists at the University of Chile, Santiago.

“Our data show for the first time that mutations present in the spike protein of the Lambda variant confer escape to neutralising antibodies and increased infectivity,” they wrote in a pre paper report published last week.

The study warned that these factors could account for the rapid spread of the strain, despite Chile undergoing a massive vaccination program.

“Considering that this variant has rapidly spread in Peru, Ecuador, Chile and Argentina, we believe that Lambda has a considerable potential to become a variant of concern,” the paper read.

Last month, Public Health England designated Lambda a “Variant Under Investigation” after six cases were detected in returned travellers. Since then, two new cases have been detected.

However, the WHO has stressed that “further studies are … required to validate the continued effectiveness of vaccines” against the new strain.