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German Chancellor Angela Merkel and WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus hold a meeting in Berlin on Wednesday. (EPA/Yonhap News)

The World Health Organization is monitoring a new COVID-19 variant called “mu,” which the agency has designated as a “variant of interest” since it was first detected in Colombia in January, according to AFP.

The WHO monitors virus variants that are designated as either “variants of interest” or “variants of concern,” depending on their transmissibility and the symptoms they cause.

There are currently four variants of concern: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta. Alpha has been detected in 193 countries and Beta in 170 countries. Somewhat less worrisome are the variants of interest, of which Mu is the fifth, alongside Eta, Iota, Kappa, and Lambda.

WHO has called for further study, given the possibility that Mu may be resistant to COVID-19 vaccines.

Following its discovery in Colombia in January, Mu has spread throughout Latin America and into Europe. The variant is currently being reported in 39 countries. While Mu represents less than 0.1% of total COVID-19 cases worldwide, it accounts for 39% of cases in Colombia and 13% in Ecuador.

Mu hasn’t been detected in Korea yet, but Japan recently announced its first cases of the variant.

Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare confirmed that two individuals who had tested positive for COVID-19 during airport screening in June and July had been infected with the Mu variant, NHK reported on Thursday.

Mu was detected in a woman in her 40s who flew from the UAE to Narita Airport on June 26 and a woman in her 50s who flew from the UK to Haneda Airport on July 5.

By Park Byong-su, senior staff writer

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