WHO says it is observing a new Covid variant called ‘MU’!

KFS launches eight utility vehicles to augment forest Protection

Kenya: The Principal Secretary of the State Department of Forestry, Ephantus Kimotho, has urged Kenya Forest Service to lay focus on resource mobilization and stakeholder engagement as a key strategic objective in the growth of the capacity of the Service to implement the 30 percent tree cover target by 2032.

Homa-Bay county schools to compete in tree growing

Kenya: The Governor of Homa-Bay County, Gladys Wanga, has launched a school tree growing competition that will involve all schools in the county in a bid to increase the country's forest cover from the current 3% to 30%.

PR Event in Ebène Cybercity for Flyover Ebène Project

Mauritius: A Public Relations exercise with tenants and stakeholders of Ebène Cybercity in view of the construction of the new interchange along the M3-A14 corridor (Flyover Ebène project) was held on Tuesday, 21 March 2023, at the Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Tower in Ebène.

Mauritius Qualifications Authority renews RPL Support Scheme

Mauritius: The Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) Support Scheme, a process to officially recognise and validate competencies gained outside the formal education and training system for the purpose of certification, was renewed yesterday, between the Human Resource Development Council (HRDC) and the Mauritius Qualifications Authority (MQA), during a ceremony held at the Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Tower, in Ebène. The event was followed by a workshop on Portfolio Development for 100 new potential candidates.

The World Health Organization is observing a different coronavirus variant named MU. They state that this variant has the potential to escape protection given by a former Covid-19 virus or immunity. Mu — also recognized by experts as B.1.621. This variant joined to the WHO’s record of variants “of concern” on Aug. 30, the global health organization announced in its weekly Covid epidemiological statement issued late Tuesday.

The modification includes genetic mutations that show genetic immunization, prevailing vaccines or monoclonal immunoglobulin medications may not control as well toward it as they do upon the initial parental illness, the WHO stated. The MU strain requires more research to establish whether it will determine to be more deadly, more destructive, or more contrary to current vaccines and medications.

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MU “has a stars of variations that show possible features of immune evasion,” the WHO recorded in its statement on Tuesday. “Introductory data exhibited to the Virus Evolution Working Group display a decrease in neutralization potential of patient and vaccine plasmas comparable to that observed for the Beta variant, but this necessitates to be verified by additional investigations,” it appended.

The firm is observing four alternatives “of interest,” including delta, which was initially discovered in India and is the commonly widespread variant currently flowing in the U.S.; alpha originally identified in the U.K.; beta, initially discovered in South Africa, and gamma, originally exposed in Brazil. A variant of attention is commonly described as a mutated strain that’s either more infectious, more dangerous, or more contrary to prevailing vaccines and medications.

It’s also maintaining a tight vigil on four other alternatives of concern — including lambda, principally recognized in Peru — that have generated disorders in various nations and have hereditary mutations that could make them more vulnerable than other strains.

Delta was an alternative of concern until the WHO reclassified it at the beginning of May after preparatory investigations determined it could develop more efficiently than other variants of the infection. That variant has since been imputed for various extensive mutinies around the globe, including in the United States.

The latest variant, MU, was initially recognized in Colombia but has since been established in at least 39 nations, according to the WHO. Although the global ubiquity of the variant among sequenced events has weakened and is currently under 0.1%, its pervasiveness in Colombia and Ecuador have consistently improved, the firm predicted.
The WHO said more investigations are required to know the clinical features of the latest variant.

“The epidemiology of the MU variant in South America, especially with the co-circulation of the Delta variant, will be observed for varieties,” the firm stated. Genetics researchers who have been seeing for different coronavirus variants say they’ve noticed a troubling unusual genealogy that offers several of the corresponding trademarks as other strains, including Alpha, Beta, and Gamma.

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The variant they are seeing, called C.1.2, has risen across South Africa as well as in seven other nations in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific, the researchers state. They are not certain whether its constellation of variations will make it more vulnerable but, it brings modifications that have addressed other variants’ raised transmissibility and the capacity to escape the immune system’s response to some extent.

Having added varieties does not significantly equal more exposure — some varieties can minimize infection and it’s the sequence of transformations that influences whether a virus becomes more effective. One additional mutation could drop out the results of another. But the organization — which involves virologist Penny Moore of South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases — states they are maintaining an eye on it.

“We are currently evaluating the influence of this alternative on antibody neutralization following SARS-CoV-2 disease or inoculation against SARS-CoV-2 in South Africa,” they addressed in a statement posted online as a preprint. “This alternative has been identified completely through the third wave of diseases in South Africa from May 2021 onwards and has been identified in seven other nations within Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania. The description of different SARS-CoV-2 variants is generally connected with different waves of infection.”

It’s too early for the variant to be assigned a variant of concern or a variant of attention by the World Health Organization, so it does not still have a Greek letter classification. WHO currently lists four variants of interest, which are more readily transferred, influence the austerity of illness, or escape examinations, vaccines, or medications: Alpha or B.1.1.7; Beta or B.1.351; Gamma or P.1; and Delta or B.1.617.2. Variants of concern, which have troubling variations and have generated batches of disease, incorporating Eta or B.1.525; Iota or B.1.526; Kappa or B.1.617.1 and Lambda or C.37, according to WHO.

Maria van Kerkhove, scientific administration on Covid-19 for WHO, remarked that very few people diagnosed with coronavirus are affected with the C.1.2 variant. “Till day there are about 100 series of C.1.2 proclaimed globally, the most initial statements from May ’21 from South Africa,” she stated on Twitter. “At this point, C.1.2 does not seem to be increasing in transmission,” she continued. She stated that WHO would update people on its forum and through news gathering if that develops.

“Monitoring & evaluation of variants is continuous & critically necessary to explain the development of this virus, in challenging COVID-19 & adjusting policies as required,” she continued. So far, the Delta variant is still powerful, Van Kerkhove stated. Some variants, such as Alpha and Delta, have instantly developed to fit the predominant variants in much of the globe. Others have developed more regionally, including Beta and Gamma. Others have observed troubling but produced only infrequent breaks.

KFS launches eight utility vehicles to augment forest Protection

Kenya: The Principal Secretary of the State Department of Forestry, Ephantus Kimotho, has urged Kenya Forest Service to lay focus on resource mobilization and stakeholder engagement as a key strategic objective in the growth of the capacity of the Service to implement the 30 percent tree cover target by 2032.

Homa-Bay county schools to compete in tree growing

Kenya: The Governor of Homa-Bay County, Gladys Wanga, has launched a school tree growing competition that will involve all schools in the county in a bid to increase the country's forest cover from the current 3% to 30%.

PR Event in Ebène Cybercity for Flyover Ebène Project

Mauritius: A Public Relations exercise with tenants and stakeholders of Ebène Cybercity in view of the construction of the new interchange along the M3-A14 corridor (Flyover Ebène project) was held on Tuesday, 21 March 2023, at the Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Tower in Ebène.

Mauritius Qualifications Authority renews RPL Support Scheme

Mauritius: The Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) Support Scheme, a process to officially recognise and validate competencies gained outside the formal education and training system for the purpose of certification, was renewed yesterday, between the Human Resource Development Council (HRDC) and the Mauritius Qualifications Authority (MQA), during a ceremony held at the Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Tower, in Ebène. The event was followed by a workshop on Portfolio Development for 100 new potential candidates.

Dominica: PM Roosevelt Skerrit welcomes Mexican delegation AMEXCID

Dominica: Dr Roosevelt Skerrit, the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Dominica, received a group from the Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation (AMEXCID) led by its Executive Director, Dr Laura Elena Carrillo Cubillas, and extended a warm welcome on March 23, 2022.

FAZ salutes fans for filling up levy Mwanawasa stadium

Zambia: The Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) wishes to convey its gratitude to the thousands of fans that filled Levy Mwanawasa Stadium in Ndola during the Chipolopolo’s 3-1 win over Lesotho in a Group H Africa Cup of Nations qualifier.