Delhi's ongoing COVID-19 is driven primarily by the variant known as B.1.1.7, which was first detected in the UK and thereby goes by the misleading nomenclature "the UK variant".
Speaking at a webinar comprising leading genetic scientists from across the national laboratories sequencing the SARS-nCoV-2 virus genome, Sujeet Singh, director of the National Centre for Disease Control, New Delhi, today said that of the samples they sequenced, over 400 showed this variant. A little behind is the variant that was first discovered in Maharashtra, the one colloquially referred to as the "double mutant" variant.
The experts explained that the virus, by its very nature, keeps mutating, and only those mutations which show certain characteristics, like immune escape, are followed up.
Wrong to refer to 'double' or 'mutant' variants
Terms like double and triple mutants may be easier on the memory, but can also be misleading. Anurag Agarwal, director of the Institute for Genomics and Integrative Biology, New Delhi, said that while a variant might have several mutations, it's the ones scientists identity as being of interest (and later, as of concern), that are talked about. The Maharashtra double mutant, therefore, is better identified by its formal name, B.1.617. He reiterated that referring to a variant by the region where it was first identified, too, was wrong.
"It might have originated elsewhere for all one knows,'' he told this correspondent. "It is only that scientists in a particular region first noticed it.''
And as for an Indian variant, one cannot get more misleading than that, for the simple reason that the country being so huge, there are likely to be many more variants identified here over time and space.
One particular variant that has been recently noticed in West Bengal, B.1.618, is again misleadingly referred to as the triple mutant because scientists noticed that among the many mutations along its chain, there were three which were of specific interest.
Mutation or not, vaccines effective against variants
The panel pointed out that whatever the mutations of the virus, they were still within the efficacy range of existing vaccines. Virologist Shaheed Jameel cited genomic confirmation of this fact when he said that the Covishield vaccine had been shown to protect against the B.1.617 variant in studies by the Hyderabad based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology.
Moreover, secretary, biotechnology, Renu Swarup noted that whatever the variant, the public response to remains the same—the COVID appropriate protocol of masks, hand hygiene and social distancing works for every variant.
