St. Kitts and Nevis’ Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr. Hazel Laws has announced that the new COVID-19 strain that was picked up in St. Kitts and Nevis in May 2021 is identified as the Lambda variant.
In early June, St. Kitts and Nevis’ Ministry of Health sent samples to the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) for genomic sequencing to determine the variant of COVID-19 that is presently in circulation.
The Lamba variant, which has been identified in 29 countries, was first identified in Peru in August 2020. Dr. Laws said it is “quite prevalent in the South American countries including Argentina.”
At a recent COVID-19 Press Briefing, Dr. Laws noted that the new strain is more transmissible than the strain we contained last year between March-July and it is also more deadly.
