Facts about the new Delta Plus

Learn in details about Delta Plus and new spike protein mutation

Friday, 25th June 2021

India stated on this Wednesday that near about 40 cases of the Delta Covid-19 virus variant has been traced in the country. It has been discovered that this new variant carries a mutation that makes it far more transmissible. The new variant has been named as Delta Plus. In the wake of such a discovery, the states have been advised to increasing the testing.

This variant Delta Plus was reported for the first time on June 11 through a Public Health Bulletin of England.

Also read: Delta Plus Variant of the Virus: All you need to know.

The Delta Plus variant is actually Delta variant’s sub-lineage. The Delta variant was detected in our country itself for the first time and it comes with a particular spike protein referred to K417N. This new spike protein is actually the result of mutation and was also traced in the virus’s Beta variant which was identified for the first time in South Africa.

Scientists believe that this mutation combined with the other already existing attributes of Delta coronavirus variant could actually make the virus highly transmissible.

“The mutation K417N has been of interest as it is present in the Beta variant (B.1.351 lineage), which was reported to have immune evasion property,” health ministry of the country conveyed through a statement.

Much acclaimed Indian virologist

Shahid Jameel stated that the K417N was actually believed to bring down the effectiveness of therapeutic and acquired monoclonal antibodies.

As of the 16th of June, near about 197 coronavirus cases arising from the Delta Plus variant had been discovered from as many as 11 countries across the globe namely — Britain (36 cases), India (8 cases), Canada (1 case), Nepal (3 cases), Portugal (22 cases), Switzerland (18 cases), Russia (1 case), Poland (9 cases), Turkey (1 case), Japan (15 cases), and the U.S (83 Cases).

India reported on this Wednesday that near about 40 covid cases from this variant were discovered in the various Indian states of Kerala, Maharashtra and the state of Madhya Pradesh, without any “significant increase in prevalence”. The earliest new variant-induced covid case in our country has been discovered from a sample collected on the 5th of April.

Britain informed that its first 5 new variant triggered covid cases were specifically sequenced on the 26th of April.

No death toll news was there among both UK as well as Indian cases.

Researchers of our country and also across the globe are carrying out intensive study to analyze the effectiveness and functionality of the vaccines against this new strain.

“WHO is tracking this variant as part of the Delta variant, as we are doing for other Variants of Concern with additional mutations,” said World Health Organization (WHO) through a statement made to the Reuters.

“For the moment, this variant does not seem to be common, currently accounting for only a small fraction of the Delta sequences…Delta and other circulating Variants of Concern remain a higher public health risk as they have demonstrated increases in transmission,” it stated.

The News Talkie Bureau

Source:

Indianexpress