Mu Corona variant

In news- The World Health Organization has recently named a new “variant of interest” (VoI) of the coronavirus, called the Mu variant. The four other VoI are Eta, Iota, Kappa and Lambda.

About the Mu variant-

It was first found in Colombia in January 2021, and has been found in about 39 countries so far.
The genomic structure of the Mu variant is different from the original strain of the virus.
It has changes, called mutations and might be able to evade some of the protection we get from COVID vaccines.
If there’s good evidence Mu is more serious and beginning to overtake other variants such as Delta, it might be upgraded to a “variant of concern”.
The four variants of concern (VoC) are Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta.
Mu is defined by at least nine identified mutations in the spike protein — T95I, Y144S, Y145N, R346K, E484K, N501Y, D614G, P681H and D950N.
Of these, E484K and N501Y are the ones that are of special concern as they have been associated with immune escape and increased transmission in previously identified variants.
Three of the four VoC (Alpha, Beta and Gamma) have both these mutations.