International researchers believe that this variant is typical of Indian origin. As a result, researchers and media houses from around the world are now focusing on Vidarbha; some even visited Nagpur while discovering the new “Indian variant”. “It is different from the UK, or Africa or Brazil variant, which was discussed at the beginning of this wave,” said dr. Nitin Shinde, a specialist in infectious diseases, said. .
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‘Many countries, including the United Kingdom, have imposed travel bans on India. This is because a specific variant of the virus – B.1.617 – is becoming more common, ”said Dr Shinde. He believes that the Amravati boom was also due to this variant, but this needs to be confirmed with more research.
According to data shared by the eGlobal Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GSAID), B.1.617 was first found in samples collected in the country in December 2020. They have genome sequence data from Indian samples up to April 3 this year. Until then, this variant was visible in 29% of the samples in India.
GSAID is recognized by its importance for global health by G20 health ministers. In 2020, the WHO called this data science initiative “a game changer” in relation to the pandemic.
Dr Atul Gawande, from Umarkhed in the Yavatmal district of Vidarbha, and currently a member of US President Joe Biden’s Covid-19 advisory team, also expressed concern about this variant, calling it “extremely frightening”. ‘I see this variant going through whole households of my family in India. “Whether it is more lethal and whether vaccines work well against it remains unclear,” he said.
As noted by Dr Gawande, especially in Vidarbha, it has been noted that this variant infects whole families, unlike its predecessors in the September 2020 wave. This means that the virus is significantly more contagious, he says. But whether it is deadly or not has yet to be investigated. At the moment the variant is ‘under investigation’. It is still not called a ‘variant of concern’, but scientists have recognized it as a ‘variant of importance’. According to an initial study by virology researcher Grace Roberts of Queen’s University, Belfast, this variant is estimated to be about 20% more transmissible than the earlier form of the coronavirus that circulated during the first wave.
However, Ministry of Health officials said the increase in cases is not related to the variant as B.1.617 has not been detected in large quantities to determine whether it is directly responsible. However, experts think this may be due to lack of data, and many have stressed the importance of increasing virus sequences to get a better picture.