In accordance with well being officers, a variant of lambda has been found in northern Louisiana

BATON ROUGE, La (BRPROUD) – According to health authorities, the lambda variant of the coronavirus has been detected here in Louisiana.

The lambda variant was first discovered in Peru last year and, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), is the dominant mutation in this area today.

The first detection of lambda in the United States was in Texas, and now it’s here in Louisiana. Dr. Aldo Russo, Regional Medical Director at Ochsner in Baton Rouge, said they were watching the slow progress of this variant while they were still fighting Delta.

“Since we started sequencing the virus, we’ve discovered about six diseases in northern Louisiana and northwestern Louisiana,” said Russo.

The lambda variant has not yet been found here in Baton Rouge, but medical professionals are testing it.

“We take samples on our urgent issues,” said Russo. “We take, say, one in five samples, we sequence them and mainly to get them when there is a trend.”

The WHO has designated lambda as a “variant of interest”.

“The virus has a lot more variants, right. And we can now see that this variant, along with ten other variants, is predominantly available in our country, ”said Russo.

Russo said the Delta variant remains the main concern in Louisiana.

“What we’re seeing is that the Delta variant takes over nearly 95 percent of the infection,” said Russo. “We saw in June that we very quickly switched from the sole alpha variant as the predominant variant to the delta variant.”

To keep you and your loved ones safe, Russo repeats the same advice every community health officer has begged.

“Where the mask and social distance are and get vaccinated,” said Russo.