The Emergence of Sars-CoV-2 Variant Lambda (C.37) in South America

We report the emergence of a novel lineage of SARS-CoV-2 in South America, termed C.37. It presents seven nonsynonymous mutations in the Spike gene (Δ247-253, G75V, T76I, L452Q, F490S, T859N) and a deletion in the ORF1a gene (Δ3675-3677) also found in variants of concern (VOCs) Alpha, Beta, and Gamma. Initially reported in Lima, Peru, in late December 2020, it now accounts for 97% of Peruvian public genomes in April 2021. It is expanding in Chile and Argentina, and there is evidence of onward transmission in Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, the USA, Germany, and Israel. On June 15, 2021, the World Health Organization designated C.37 as Variant of Interest (VOI) Lambda. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Funding Statement We are funded by Fondo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia (FONDECYT) grants #046-2020, #022-2021, and Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos grant #A2008007M. PER is supported by FONDECYT grant #034-2019. ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: The Institutional Review Board of Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia approved the project in June 2020 (E051-12-20). All necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines and uploaded the relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material as supplementary files, if applicable. Yes All analyzed sequences were publicly available in GISAID at the time of submission. Raw Illumina reads from 350 Peruvian genomes sequenced at UPCH are available at NCBI BioProject PRJNA667090.