COVID-19: Most sequenced variant is new B.1.618

New Delhi, Apr 21: An unknown Sars Cov-2 variant has now started to emerge in samples analysed in India to check for mutations.

This particular change is known as E484K and has been linked with the virus becoming more resistant to antibodies created by the vaccines or a past infection. The new variant found has been labelled as B.1.618 and has been reported from West Bengal from where some of the highest numbers of sequencing has been carried out.

A HT report said that details about its spread come days after genome sequencing data indicated a large presence of another known variant first found in India, the B.1.617 referred to as a the double mutant.

The data submitted from India to the global repository GISAID shows B.1.618 at 12 per cent. This is the third most common varian sequenced in the last 60 days. The most common among the sequences is B.1.617 at 28 per cent.

An analysis by outbreak.info says that 129 of the the 130 B.1.618 sequences in India were in samples from West Bengal. India accounts for 62.5 per cent of the B.1.618 variant reported in the world.