NEW DELHI – Experts have detected a new and possibly problematic variant of the coronavirus in India, just as variants were detected in the UK, South Africa and Brazil.
THE NEW VARIANT CAN BE DANGEROUS
However, Health Ministry officials and experts warned that the variants should not be linked to a spike in infections in India.
Transmission decreased in India since September and life was returning to normal.
But last month they began to rise and there were more than 47,000 new cases in the last 24 hours along with 275 deaths, the highest number for a single day in more than four months.
The virus has mutated during the pandemic. Most mutations are trivial, but scientists try to determine which ones are more easily transmitted or cause more serious disease.
The three variants detected in South Africa, Great Britain and Brazil are considered to be the most disturbing and have been designated “variants of interest”.
The doses were being applied in European countries until complications appeared.
All three appeared in 7% of the nearly 11,000 samples sequenced in India since December 30. The most contagious was the one detected in the UK last year.
The new variant found in India has two mutations in protein spicules by which the virus attaches itself to cells, said Dr. Rakesh Mishra, director of the Center for Cell and Molecular Biology, one of 10 research institutes that sequence the virus. virus.
He added that these genetic variants could be of concern because they facilitate transmission and escape the immune system, but he maintained that they should not be linked to the new peak.
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