Chief Medical Officer: Mu Variant Detected in Jamaica

The fifth variant of COVID-19, the Mu variant has been detected in Jamaica. The announcement was made on Thursday, September 9, during the Health Ministry’s COVID -19 media briefing. The variant was recently reported to be detected in St. Vincent, and has been deemed to be more transmittable than the previous strains.

Chief Medical Officer, (CMO) Dr. Jacquiline Bisasor Mckenzie, says the Ministry received the reports of 26 of more than 90 samples that were taken and sent to the U.S. Centres for Disease Control, (CDC) in August, testing positive for the variant.

Dr. McKenzie says more details on the cases are to come. She insists the Delta variant remains the dominant variant locally. She noted that though 26 of the samples showed the most recent strain, 55 of the samples tested came back as Delta variant. The CMO notes that while some variants may not have much impact on the virus others may be more transmissible and less responsive to vaccines.

She emphasised that continued surveillance of a variant is necessary to determine the transmissibility and its overall impact. The Mu variant however, is a World Health Organisation, (W.H.O) variant of interest.

More in this CVM Live story from Neika Lewis: