New Delta Plus Covid variant detected in India, says Centre
Genome sequencing by the SARS-COV-2 Genetics Consortium helped in detection of variants of concern
The central government on Tuesday said that the ‘Delta’ variant of Sars-cov-2 has further mutated to form the ‘Delta plus’ adding that “the variant has been detected and submitted to a global data system”.
“Delta variant played major role in 2nd wave. An additional mutation of this variant, known as Delta Plus, has been detected & submitted to global data system. It has been seen in Europe since March and was brought into public domain on June 13. Delta Plus is a variant of interest. It has not yet been classified as a variant of concern,” said Dr VK Paul, member-health, Niti Aayog at a press briefing.
“As per data available in public domain, this variant nullifies the use of monoclonal antibody. We will study & learn more about this variant,” Paul added.
The B.1.617.2 strain or the ‘Delta’ variant of SARS-COV-2 was identified as one of the drivers of the second wave of Covid-19 infections that devastated parts of India earlier this year.
Separately, the Union health ministry said on Tuesday that the genome sequencing by the Indian SARS-COV-2 Genetics Consortium helped in detection of ‘variants of concern’ in realtime and it was also shared with states, highlighting that the turnaround time was 10 to 15 days.
The ministry said that the effect of known ‘variants of concern’ (Vocs) on disease transmission and severity is already established.
But for new mutations or variants under investigation, and for correlation of genomic mutations with epidemiological scenarios and clinical perspective, it is important to monitor epidemiological trends of cases, clinical severity and proportions of samples with genomic variants, it said. These have to be done over a few weeks to generate scientifically valid evidence, the ministry said. The health ministry also referred to some media reports which alleged low quantum of sequencing in the country and significant lag between sample collection and sequence submission into the database for pattern detection and actionable alerts to governments.
“It is clarified that a sampling strategy is based on the country’s objectives, scientific principles and WHO (World Health Organisation) guidance documents. Accordingly, the strategy has been reviewed and revised from time to time,” it said.
The Indian SARS-COV-2 Genetics Consortium (INSACOG) was set up by the government on December 25 last year to study and monitor genome sequencing and virus variation of circulating strains of Covid-19 in India.
Accordingly, a two-pronged strategy was adopted -- international passengers arriving from selected countries and their contacts were targeted for whole genome sequencing (WGS), and community-based sampling of five per cent of the RT-PCR positive cases was done from each state. It is important to note that the five per cent norm was selected based on the then daily caseload (approximately 10,000–15,000 per day) and the sequencing capacity of the Regional Genome Sequencing Laboratories (RGSLS) at that time, the ministry said.