Cover: What is the Delta Plus variant of COVID-19? | Coronavirus pandemic News

Scientists are concerned that the mutations, along with other features of the Delta variant, may have a higher transmission.

India said on Wednesday that it had found about 40 cases of the Delta coronavirus variant carrying a mutation that provides greater transmission, and advised states to increase testing.

Here’s what we know about the variant.

What is Delta Plus?

It was a variant called Delta Plus in India first reported (PDF) In the Public Health England Bulletin, June 11th.

It is a sub-line of the Delta variant first detected in India and has acquired a spike protein mutation called K417N, which is also found in the Beta variant first identified in South Africa.

Some scientists are concerned that mutations, along with other features of the Delta variant, may be more transmissible.

“The K417N mutation has been interesting because it is in the Beta variant (lineage B.1.351) and was reported to be a property of immune escape,” the Indian Ministry of Health said in a statement.

Shahid Jameel, India’s top virologist, said K417N is known to reduce the effectiveness of a cocktail of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies.

Where is everything found?

From June 16 (PDF), at least 197 cases were found in 11 countries – Great Britain (36), Canada (1), India (8), Japan (15), Nepal (3), Poland (9), Portugal (22), Russia (1) , Switzerland (18), Turkey (1), United States (83).

India said on Wednesday that about 40 cases of the variant had been seen in the states of Maharashtra, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh, “without a significant increase in prevalence”. The earliest case in India is from a sample taken on April 5th.

Britain said its first five cases were sequenced on April 26 and involved contacts of people who had traveled or passed through Nepal and Turkey.

No deaths have been reported in the UK and India.

What are the concerns?

Research is being conducted in India and around the world to test the effectiveness of vaccines against this mutation.

“The WHO is monitoring this variant as part of the Delta variant, as we are doing in the face of other variants of concern with additional mutations,” the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement to Reuters.

“At the moment, this variant seems uncommon, as it is only a small part of Delta sequences today … Delta and other circulating variants of concern continue to pose a higher public health risk as they have demonstrated increased transmission,” he said. .

But the Indian Ministry of Health has warned that the regions found that “they will need to improve their public health response by focusing on surveillance, improved testing, quick contacts and priority vaccination”.

There are concerns that Delta Plus would cause another wave of infection in India after the recent worst case in the world.

“The mutation itself may not lead to a third wave in India – that too depends on the behavior of proper COVID, but it may be one of the reasons,” said Tarun Bhatnagar, an Indian scientist with the Indian Medical Research Council.