R.1 COVID-19 variant not an ‘imminent threat’ as Delta stays dominant: expert
Global News
The COVID variant R.1 was first reported to be circulating in multiple countries by the World Health Organization in January, but it never made a significant impact in Canada.
A COVID-19 variant making headlines in the United States is not circulating in Canada, nor is likely to overtake the dominant Delta strain.
Recently, stories in American news outlets about the R.1 variant have emerged, questioning its mutation and the potential threat it poses. Specifically, the strain is getting attention in California, but the Los Angeles Times has reported the mutation has “died out already.”
The R.1 variant was concerning because it has a few mutations that might avoid anti-body responses, said Andy Pekosz, a virologist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the United States.
“At the time, though, that was just before Alpha in the U.S. made its first trip through the country, followed by Delta, and once Alpha and Delta came through, R.1 essentially disappeared from most people’s radar screens,” he told Global News.
“So that sort of told us that Alpha and Delta were probably better viruses at spreading than R.1 was, even though R.1 had some mutations that would make it concerning to us.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) first reported R.1 was circulating in multiple countries in January, but it never made variant of interest classification.
Neither did it make a significant impact in Canada, a spokesperson for Health Canada told Global News.
Today, R.1 isn’t active in Canada, though the country has logged 48 cases of the mutation to date. Most of those occurred in March and April, with the last case reported on April 20, said Anna Maddison.