India is in the midst of a raging second wave of ‗Double Mutant‘ Covid variant. There is panic, fear,
shortages of hospital beds, oxygen, medicines in every part of India. Inspite of such uncontrollable
situation ‗Indian Politics‘ is in its peak having rallies, elections, gatherings etc. As a citizen of India write a
letter to the editor of a national daily expressing your views on the matter in 100-120 words.
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India is currently in the middle of a ferocious second wave, recording 1,61,736 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, overtaking Brazil to become the second-most affected country in the world.
One of the factors propelling the second wave is the emergence of a new, fast-spreading Indian variant of the virus. It is being called a “double mutant” variant because it has two mutations. It has been found in 61% of samples put through genome sequencing in Maharashtra, the worst hit state in India, as the Indian Express reported on April 14, strengthening suspicions that the current surge is powered by a more transmissible strain.
Labelled B.1.617, the double mutant variant was first detected in India, but has been now found in eight countries, with 70% of samples containing the mutations originating from India.
Early warnings from Vidarbha
In February, Maharashtra’s eastern region of Vidarbha saw the virus raging with a ferocity not seen earlier. Genome sequencing of the infected blood samples by researchers found the E484K mutation in a sample from Amravati and the N440K mutation another from Amravati, the Indian Express reported on February 18.
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The E484K mutation, previously seen in the fast-spreading Brazilian and South African variants, makes the virus highly transmissible. The N440K mutation, found earlier in samples from Andhra Pradesh, helps the virus evade the body’s immune response. In other words, antibodies induced as a result of vaccination or an old infection become ineffective to counter the virus as should be the case under normal circumstances. Each time a virus mutates, it gives rise to a new variant. Not all variants are a matter of concern. But the variant in Maharashtra appeared to be.
“At that time, we flagged [to the Centre] that it was a rapidly spreading variant affecting a less exposed population,” said Shashank Joshi, a doctor who is part of the Maharashtra Covid-19 task force.
Confusing messaging
But what followed after that was a slew of conflicting information.
Officially, the Maharashtra government denied the presence of any foreign variants or anything out of the ordinary, for that matter. But Randeep Guleria, the director of Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Science, said in a television interview that the new strain found in Amravati is “highly transmissible and dangerous”.
no of “grave concern”, the Centre said.
A ‘double mutant’ variant, but ‘don’t panic’
Two days later, the Union health ministry finally confirmed the existence of an Indian “double mutant” strain of the virus containing the E484Q and L452R mutations. The strain was subsequently named B.1.617. First detected in India, it has now been found in eight countries, with 70% of samples containing the mutations originating from India.
While E484Q is similar to the E484K mutation, the L452R, like the N440K mutation, is associated with antibody evasion. Both the mutations were found in 15-20% of the analysed infected samples from Maharashtra, the health ministry said in its March 24 statement. “Such mutations confer immune escape and increased infectivity,” it added.
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But these mutations, the Centre cautioned, were not found in sizable numbers to “either establish or direct relationship or explain the rapid increase in cases in some states”.
The ICMR’s Bhargava was even more emphatic while answering queries of journalists. “There is no cause for panic. Mutations are sporadic, not significant,” he insisted.
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But other scientists say that this approach of not creating “panic” may have backfired.
“Had it been more widely known that a faster spreading variant was at play and that it was capable of immune escape, perhaps more care could have been taken,” said Gautam Menon who teaches physics and biology at Sonepat’s Ashoka University.
Menon’s argument seems particularly pertinent given the circumstances in which the second wave exploded. Despite the early warnings from Maharashtra, there was little public awareness in other parts of the country of potentially more virulent strains doing the rounds even as people resumed normal lives. As Menon wrote in a piece in The Wire recently:
Some variants are specific to regions of India, including one called B.1.36, found to be present in a good fraction of cases tested in Bengaluru. The specific mutation carried by the B.1.36 variant, called N440K, is widespread in cases from the southern states. Although data is skimpy, there is some evidence that the B.1.36 variant may be responsible for some reinfections.
The B.1.1.7 variant [the UK variant] currently dominates new cases in Punjab.
Another variant, recently named B.1.617, figures prominently in the sudden increase of cases in Maharashtra. This variant contains two specific mutations, called E484Q and L452R.
Despite the new variants spreading, several states saw large public congregations in the form of election rallies where few people would wear masks because it was largely believed that the virus was gone for good....