The highly transmissible Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 has mutated further to form the Delta plus or AY.1 variant. However, there is no immediate cause for concern in India as its incidence in the country is still low, scientists here said. The new Delta plus variant has been formed due to a mutation in the Delta or B.1.617.2 variant, first identified in India. Though there is no indication yet of the severity of the disease due to the new variant, Delta plus is resistant to the monoclonal antibody cocktail treatment for Covid-19 recently authorised in India. One of the emerging variants is B.1.617.2.1 also known as AY.1 characterised by the acquisition of K417N mutation, Vinod Scaria, clinician and scientist at Delhi’s CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), tweeted on June 13. According to Public Health England, 63 genomes of Delta (B.1.617.2) with the new K417N mutation have been identified so far on the global science initiative GISAID. The variant frequency for K417N is not much in India at this point in time & the sequences are mostly from Europe, Asia & America, Scaria wrote on Twitter. Noting that the travel histories for the variant are not readily available to make assumptions, Scaria said an important point to consider regarding K417N is the evidence suggesting resistance to monoclonal antibodies Casirivimab & Imdevimab. Watch the video to know more.
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