COVID-19 Update / New variant of corona virus found in India can seriously ill- report

Pune. A new variant of Coronavirus has been detected in India. Pune-based NIV Institute of Virology has detected this new variant B.1.1.28.2 by doing genome sequencing of the virus. This new variant of the virus is as serious as the delta variant found in India. This variant has been found in people coming to India from the United Kingdom and Brazil, which can cause severe symptoms in infected people.

The pathogenicity of NIV has been investigated and shown that this variant causes severe disease. In the study, whether the vaccine is effective against the variant or not, the need for screening has been told. This NIV study has been published online in bioRxiv. At the same time, another study from NIV Pune says that Covaxin is effective against this variant. According to the study, the antibodies produced by two doses of the vaccine can neutralize this variant.

According to the report of Times of India, health experts say that this variant is as dangerous as the delta variant. B.1.1.28.2 When infected with the variant, the person starts losing weight. Due to the rapid spread of its infection, the patient's lungs get damaged. According to the study, the B.1.1.28.2 variant has shown several adverse effects on infected Syrian rats. These included weight loss, copying of the virus in the respiratory system, lesions in the lungs and heavy damage in them. The study emphasizes the need for genome surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 to prepare for variants that escape the immune system in genome sequencing labs.

Genome Labs sequences 30,000 samples

Genome sequencing labs are detecting mutants that are more likely to contribute to disease transmission. Presently, 10 national labs under INSACOG (Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genome Sequencing Consortia) have sequenced around 30,000 samples. The government wants to promote genome sequencing and 18 more labs have recently been added to the consortium.

Many variants have appeared so far

Since the start of the corona epidemic, new variants (variants) of the corona virus have appeared. The new type of virus found in India B.1.1.28.2 has spread to other countries of the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) has named this variant as Delta. These days this virus is infecting a large number of people in Britain. At the same time, last year the alpha variant of the corona virus infected a large number of people in Britain. So far, many variants of SARS-Covid-2 have been found all over the world.