With vaccination programmes being sped up all over the globe, one would assume that the worse is expected to be over soon, right?

Well, not quite.

A worrying new strain

The Ministry of Health has revealed that a much more dangerous variant of the COVID-19 virus is making its way around the globe.

According to a tweet by the Ministry of Health, the new variant, codenamed Lambda, is ever more contagious than the existing Delta variant.

The Lambda strain has, so far, been detected in more than 30 countries in the past four weeks.

"The Lambda strain was reported to have originated from Peru, the country with the highest mortality rate in the world," read the tweet.

#COVID19 Satu strain baharu yang dikatakan lebih bahaya daripada varian Delta dilaporkan telah dikesan di lebih 30 negara sejak 4 minggu lalu.Strain Lambda dilaporkan berasal dari Peru, negara yang mencatatkan kadar kematian tertinggi di dunia. https://t.co/GKElk31wsy

— KKMalaysia?? (@KKMPutrajaya) July 5, 2021

According to a news report by Australian news portal news.com.au attached to the tweet, the Lambda strain had been detected in the United Kingdom.

The country has reported six cases linked to the new strain.

The report also said that researchers in the UK are worried that this variant may be "more infectious than the Delta variant".

What is the Lambda strain?

The Lambda strain was believed to have originated from Peru, the country with the highest mortality rate in the world.

The new variant is now reportedly related to 81 per cent of the country’s cases since April.

Not only is the Lambda strain more transmissible and more infectious to the Delta strain, scientists also believe that the variant showed a resistance to antibodies created by the CoronaVac vaccine, Independent UK reported.