 The B1617 variant of COVID-19 force found in India last October seemed to be transmitting more easily than the original version of the virus. The World Health Organization said the variant force identified in India last year was being classified as a variant of global concern. Our virus evolution working group and our EPI teams and our lab teams internally, there is some available information to suggest increased transmissibility of B1617. There is a pre-print that is out. So this is a paper that has not undergone peer review and it's a limited number of patients suggesting that there is some reduced neutralization and as such we are classifying this as a variant of concern at the global level. It is Monday 10 May 2021. My name is Christian. What we know now is that the vaccines work, the diagnostics work, the same treatments that are used for the regular virus work so there is really no need to change any of those and in fact there should be, people should go ahead and get whatever vaccine is available to them and that they are eligible for. We are still in a perilous situation. The spread of variants, increased social mixing, the relaxation of public health and social measures and inequitable vaccination are all driving transmission. Yes, vaccines are reducing severe diseases and there's in countries that are fortunate enough to have them in sufficient quantities and early results suggest that vaccines might also drive down transmission. The shocking global disparity in access to vaccines remains one of the biggest risks to ending the pandemic. High and upper middle income countries represent 53% of the world's population but have received 83% of the world's vaccines. By contrast low and lower middle income countries account for 47% of the world's population but have received just 17% of the world's vaccines.