Covid virus's B.1.617 strain in India

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  Covid virus's B.1.617 strain in India

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• India's variant: Scientists are trying to understand the exact nature of risk posed by a coronavirus variant known as B.1.617, which the World Health Organization (WHO) on 11-05-2021 designated a global “variant of concern", or VOC.
• What WHO said: The WHO said that preliminary studies shoed the variant may spread more easily than other strains of the new coronavirus. The record-setting surge of Covid-19 cases that overwhelmed India’s healthcare system in April and May, and the risk the variant poses to the rest of the world, was under a scanner. India regularly reported more than 3,50,000 for days together.
• Details of the B.1.617 variant:

1. The variant, identified in October 2020, is a mutant form of the virus that causes Covid-19. It has 13 mutations, including two notable ones in the spike protein that the virus uses to attach to and infect cells.
2. One of the mutations, E484Q, is similar to one that is common to the variants identified in South Africa and Brazil. In those variants, the mutation seems to make the virus better at evading the body’s immune responses. The other, known as L452R, is also found in the dominant strain in California, and may boost viral transmission.
3. The two mutations are in really important parts of the structure of the spike protein, and important for the interaction of the virus with the host. Scientists are also looking into a third mutation, P681R, which might help the virus replicate more quickly.

• How contagious: One version of the variant is at least as transmissible as a highly contagious variant known as B.1.1.7. That variant has spread around the world after it was first identified in southern England in 2020. Some scientists aren’t sure the virus spreads more easily. Even the out of control and devastating pandemic in India may not be entirely due to this new variant.
• Existing vaccines: Scientists are investigating and a study documented a cluster of B.1.617 infections in Indian healthcare workers who had been vaccinated with the shot developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca PLC. Studies showed antibodies elicited by the vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE were slightly less effective at neutralizing B.1.617 than other variants. Even if research confirms the B.1.617 variant is more likely than other variants to cause infection in people who have already been vaccinated, vaccines should nonetheless be effective at preventing severe illness and death. Researchers have reported that a vaccine developed by Indian drugmaker Bharat Biotech, which is being rolled out in India, appears to be effective against B.1.617.
• US situation: At least 350 cases of the B.1.617 variant have been reported in the U.S. To limit the variant’s spread, the U.S. has suspended most travel from India to the U.S. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stipulates that all U.S.-bound air travelers have proof of a negative Covid-19 test administered no more than three days before arrival.  

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