A number of scientific institutes across the country that are working on a project under the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) have formally notified the Central Health Ministry to label the variant with a double mutation in Maharashtra as a variant of concern (VOC).
These institutes were tasked with genome sequencing of the COVID-19 virus strains detected in the country. Officials are currently investigating the likelihood of this double mutation driving up the caseload in Maharashtra, which just recorded its highest single-day case count of 2021.
Such VOCs are usually concerning for the authorities and could open up new challenges like in Brazil, UK, and South Africa.
As per people familiar with the matter, around 7,000 virus samples have been sequenced by the aforementioned institutes. Of these samples, 200 were received from various regions of Maharashtra.
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“Of the samples from Maharashtra, about 20% have two mutations, E484Q and L452R,” a source quoted by The New Indian Express said. “While it is difficult to conclusively say that the variant is behind the surge, it has been established elsewhere that E484Q can escape antibody neutralisation and L452R is known to increase infectivity and has been linked to large pockets in the U.S.,” the source added.
In December 2020, the Central Government established a genomic surveillance consortium known as INSACOG, bringing 10 institutes under the NCDC to work on genome sequencing of samples gathered from across India.
More recently, a team from the Central Health Ministry visited Maharashtra between March 7-11 to investigate the surge in cases while also discussing the likelihood of the new mutation causing the increase in cases.
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“ln all the districts visited by the central team, the test positivity rate was high, ranging from 51 per cent in Mumbai to 30 per cent in Aurangabad, implying that there are lot many cases that are not being tested and there is high transmission in the community,” the report said.
“The absence of rigorous tracing, testing and containment is leading to sustained community transmission,” it added.
As per officials, the epidemiological investigation carried out by the NCDC will investigate if the variants are causing the virus to spread more in clusters and to also ascertain if they’re more infectious.
Further, epidemiologists will probe if patients are witnessing a significant digression in their clinical outcomes as a result of the variant, and also looking into the possibility of reinfection wherein an individual that has previously recovered from COVID-19 gets re-infected with the new strain.
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