Preliminary data from the United States suggests that the iota variant of the coronavirus does not lead to a serious illness, Maria Van Kerkhove, head of the technical group of the WHO Emergency Diseases unit, said at a briefing on Wednesday.
“Preliminary data from New York suggests that this option does not lead to a more severe disease and does not lead to a more serious outbreak of infections,” she said.
The expert recalled that for the first time, the “iota” variant was identified in the United States in November last year and was identified as an option of interest in March this year. WHO has about 28 thousand complete genome sequences of this variant, more than 27 thousand in the United States.
According to her, the number of infection cases with the “iota” variant in the United States decreases, while the “delta” variant remains prevalent in the country.
