New Threat: The More Rapidly Spreading Delta-3 Variant Found

New cases of corona have been found inside the US and all of them have been found to have the delta-3 variant of the virus.
Image Credit: ANI news
Image Credit: ANI news

Once again the new mutation regarding the coronavirus has worried scientists globally. In the last few weeks, new cases of corona have been found inside the US and all of them have been found to have the delta-3 variant of the virus, which not only has the most potential to spread compared to Delta, but also to people who have taken the vaccine or have been infected. Can also make you vulnerable to re-infection.

Delta and Kappa variants came out

No case of delta-3 has been found in India so far, but an alert has been issued by the INSACOG committee monitoring genome sequencing. According to the information, in October 2020, the first double mutation was found in Maharashtra, from which Delta and Kappa variants came out. After this, two more variants named Delta Plus and AY2 were found from the Delta variant, but not many cases have been reported. Now another variant called Delta-3 has surfaced which is found in most states of America. Not a single case has been found in India so far.

Intensive surveillance started in the country

Image Credit: WebMD
Image Credit: WebMD

Dr. Vinod Scaria, a scientist of IGIB based in New Delhi said that after mutation in the virus, AY.3 variant has been found, which is also named Delta-3. Very intensive monitoring has started in India on this. Talking about common people, this is the time to be fully alert. It was already known that mutations can occur in the virus because in the last one and a half years we have seen 230 mutations in India itself. Not all of these are harmful, but some of them are worrying like the delta that caused the pandemic we faced in April and May.

Delta found in 90% of samples in India

Talking about the data, so far the presence of the delta variant has been detected in the sequencing of 2,28,888 samples worldwide. At present, this variant is being found in up to 90 percent of the samples in India and due to this, the aggressive form of the second wave was seen. Talking about the other variants, it has been confirmed worldwide in 348 samples. Delta-2 (AY.2) in 628, and now Delta-3 (AY.3) in 2013 samples. All these data are available on GISAID, the portal of Covid sequencing created globally.

Got more serious than Delta

According to Dr. Scaria, AY.3 ie Delta 3 seems to be local to some states, such as Mississippi and Missouri in the US, and is gradually increasing in the nearby states. Although its epi-trends are not very clear, preliminary studies have shown that AY.3 variant is growing faster than B.1.617.2. This could also potentially be due to cluster testing, but AP data is needed to confirm for sure.

Image Credit: The Vaccine Alliance
Image Credit: The Vaccine Alliance

Why worry about India?

Mutations named K417N have not been found in the spike protein like Delta plus in AY.3 and AY.2. This mutation is not new to India. Therefore delta 3 is considered more serious because it has mutations specifically in ORF1A which indicate viral transmission. He said that at present there is no such case in India but now surveillance has increased even more. The samples coming from all the states are also being tested in terms of delta-3 during sequencing. If this variant is available in India then it will definitely be a concern.

There will be no mutation in the virus: Dr. Guleria

Recently, Delhi AIIMS Director Dr. Randeep Guleria had said that we cannot assess the behavior of the virus but it is seen that as before. Mutations will not be found in the virus in the coming months. He made this claim on the basis of a serosurvey. But on the other hand, INSAC believes that if we look at the current situation in India. No new mutation has been found yet. But if we look at America and other countries, then caution is necessary because the delta variant found in India has so far been found in more than 100 countries of the world. It has arrived in India, that too when international traffic was closed. Therefore, nothing can be said clearly about the mutation of the virus.

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