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India covid mutation8/28/2023 ![]() Official case numbers in India started to decline steeply from September. India had largely relaxed its social distancing and quarantine measures by March – a decision now viewed as a profound political misjudgment. Variants of interest or concern have been circulating in India since at least last December, when cases there were still declining, so they are unlikely to be the only factor driving this renewed outbreak. “Though in India we have not been able to correlate the mutant variants with the surge, based on what we’ve seen earlier, it’s the logical explanation.” Political failings “We can say are all more infectious based on their behaviour,” Dr Shahid Jameel, a virologist and director of the Trivedi school of biosciences at Ashoka University, told the Guardian last week. The best guess of epidemiologists is that these are more infectious than the iterations of the virus that were spreading in the country last year. The UK variant is driving infections in parts of India, as well as other mutations that are yet to be studied properly. The so-called “double mutation” or B1617 variant has received significant attention, though virologists note that it does not appear to be the dominant strain across the country, and nowhere near enough samples of the virus have been taken to firmly place the blame on any one variant. " We need to accept that we're now living with a higher level of risk than we used to.One idea is that India’s second wave is being driven by highly infectious variants of the virus that causes Covid-19. "We would like to return to pre-pandemic life, but we still need to be careful," she said. ![]() Luo said BA.2.75 is another reminder that the coronavirus is continually evolving – and spreading. "It is important that surveillance isn't a start-stop strategy," she said. Gagandeep Kang, who studies viruses at India's Christian Medical College in Vellore, said the growing concern over the variant underlines the need for more sustained efforts to track and trace viruses that combine genetic efforts with real world information about who is getting sick and how badly. As more people have been vaccinated, boosted or naturally infected, we are starting to see the background levels of immunity worldwide creep up." It may take several weeks to get a sense of whether the latest omicron mutant may affect the trajectory of the pandemic. "But what we have seen is that the rates of people ending up in the hospital and dying have significantly decreased. "Some may say, ‘Well, vaccination and boosting hasn't prevented people from getting infected.' And, yes, that is true," he said. In the fall it's likely the US will see updated formulations of the vaccine being developed that target more recent omicron strains. But experts say vaccines and boosters are still the best defense against severe Covid-19. Another concern is that the genetic tweaks may make it easier for the virus to skirt past antibodies - protective proteins made by the body in response to a vaccine or infection from an earlier variant. Some of those mutations are in areas that relate to the spike protein and could allow the virus to bind onto cells more efficiently, Binnicker said. Still, the fact that it has already been detected in many parts of the world even with lower levels of viral surveillance "is an early indication it is spreading," said Shishi Luo, head of infectious diseases for Helix, a company that supplies viral sequencing information to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.įueling experts' concerns are a large number of mutations separating this new variant from omicron predecessors. "But it does look like, especially in India, the rates of transmission are showing kind of that exponential increase." Whether it will outcompete BA.5, he said, is yet to be determined. "It's still really early on for us to draw too many conclusions," said Matthew Binnicker, director of clinical virology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. ![]() It's unclear whether it could cause more serious disease than other omicron variants, including the globally prominent BA.5. ![]() Scientists say the variant – called BA.2.75 – may be able to spread rapidly and get around immunity from vaccines and previous infection. The quickly changing coronavirus has spawned yet another super contagious omicron mutant that's worrying scientists as it gains ground in India and pops up in numerous other countries, including the United States.
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