EXPLOSION OF VARIANT

The researchers reported that the entry of B.1.617 into the lung and intestinal cells was blocked following treatment with soluble angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) or the serine protease inhibitor Camostat (“India reports highest death toll, states see hope only in lockdowns”, May 9, Gulf Today).

A Covid-19 variant spreading in India is more contagious and maybe dodging vaccine protection, contributing to the country’s explosive outbreak, the World Health Organisation’s chief scientist said.

In an interview with the media, Soumya Swaminathan warned that “the epidemiological features that we see in India today do indicate that it’s an extremely rapidly spreading variant”.

India on Saturday for the first time registered more than 4,000 COVID-19 deaths in just 24 hours, and more than 400,000 new infections.

Mass election rallies held by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other politicians have for instance partly been blamed for the staggering rise in infections. But even as many in India felt the crisis was over, dropping mask-wearing and other protection measures, the virus was quietly spreading. With that prospect, Swaminathan stressed that “for the foreseeable future, we need to depend on our tried and tested public health and social measures” to bring down transmission. The surge in India is frightening not only due to the horrifying number of people who are sick and dying there, but also because the exploding infection numbers dramatically increase the chances of new and more dangerous variants emerging.

“The more the virus is replicating and spreading and transmiting, the more chances are that... mutations will develop and adapt,” Swaminathan said.

“Variants which accumulate a lot of mutations may ultimately become resistant to the current vaccines that we have,” she warned.

“That’s going to be a problem for the whole world.”

Vikraant Sethi By email