MUMBAI: Nearly 50% of the samples tested positive for Covid-19 in the late stage and sent for genome sequencing have the newly identified and highly contagious Indian variant of SARS-CoV-2 called B.1.617.
Most of these samples are from Vidarbha and no sample submitted from the city has so far shown the B.1.617 variant, said scientists involved in INSACOG, a grouping of ten national laboratories that cover the entire perform genomic sequencing of samples.
The Ministry of Health of the Union has so far not provided specific details on the entire genome sequencing project. A statement Friday said that as of Thursday, 13,614 samples of the entire genome sequence had been processed in the 10 INSACOG laboratories.
Of these, 1 189 samples tested positive for the varieties of SARS COV-2 in India. This includes 1,109 samples with British variants; 79 samples with the South African variant and one sample with the Brazilian variant, ”reads the statement from the ministry.
Some information about the results of the samples sent from the state was given during a virtual meeting with Rajesh Tope, Minister of Health Union Minister of Health, dr. Harsh Vardhan, Saturday.
Tope said that of the 1100 samples sent so far, 500 samples were examined. “We have requested a detailed report from the central government, but we have been informed that it will only be available at the end of the investigation,” he said.
The biggest concern in the state – and also the rest of the world, because the Indian variant has already been isolated in multiple samples in the UK and USA – is the high portability of the variant. “As the new variant is highly contagious, we sought a report and revised guidelines from the center,” Tope said, adding that the center would only be available at the end of the investigation. .
State Director of Health Services, Dr Archana Patil said that she does know where the samples in question were collected. ‘In some examples changes are seen, but there is no comment on whether this explains this increase Maharashtra, ”Patil said.
The B.1.617 was first identified by scientists from the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB) in Delhi as part of the INSACOG project. They noted that two mutations, L452R and E484K, are known to have the ability to escape antibodies.
Articles written by experts around the world have noted that the Indian variant could ‘at least partially’ drive the current wave across the country. The director of IGIB, Dr Anurag Agrawal, said that since December, nearly 15,000 Covid-19 positive samples have been studied.
‘Our team of scientists has identified the variant that has since been called B.1.617. In general, it is present in a small percentage of samples, but its presence has increased in recent weeks, ‘said dr. Agrawal said. Scientists from other countries had more details. ‘The new tribe has been detected in at least five Indian states, including Maharashtra, Delhi and Punjab, which all contributed to the increase in cases in the country, in addition to the B.1.1.7 (UK), B.1.351 (South Africa) and P.1 (Brazil) variants that are also circulating (in) India, ” William A. Haseltine, former professor at Harvard Medical School, in an article in Forbes.
He wrote that although the extent to which the strain had spread was unknown, of the 2,844 series submitted to the GISAID database from India on March 1, 162 series were classified as B.1.617, or about 6%. “This percentage is likely to grow,” he said.
