COVID: UK variant B1.1.7 dominates North India, double mutant Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka
New
Delhi,
May
6:
The
UK
strain
of
coronavirus
is
currently
dominating
parts
of
north
India
while
double
mutant
could
be
found
mostly
in
Maharashtra,
Karnataka
and
Gujarat,
Sujeet
Singh,
Director
of
National
Centre
for
Disease
Control
(NCDC),
has
said.
He,
however,
added
that
the
B1.1.7
lineage
of
SARS
CoV-2
(UK
variant)
is
declining
in
proportion
across
the
country
in
the
last
month
and
a
half.
Addressing a press briefing on Wednesday, Singh said the UK strain is dominating parts of north India including Punjab (482 samples) and Delhi (516), followed by Telangana (192), Maharashtra (83) and Karnataka (82).
He said 10 top government laboratories and institutions have been sequencing the genomes of coronavirus since December. A total of 18,053 samples have been sequenced so far, he added.
Singh said the information on genome sequencing has been shared with the states twice in February, four times in March and again four times in April.
He said in the video-conferencing with states, the Health Ministry also informed about the current status of variants of concern and new mutants and stressed on increased and stringent public health interventions.
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The double mutant variant, also known as B.1.617, is mostly dominating Maharashtra (761), West Bengal (124), Delhi (107) and Gujarat (102), Singh said.
The South African variant, also known as B.1.315, was predominantly found in Telangana and Delhi.
Brazilian variant (P1) was only found in Maharashtra in a negligible proportion, he said.
Singh said there is a frequent written communication on the variants by the Health Ministry and the NCDC to all states and UTs.
He said states/UTs are advised to keep strict surveillance in the districts reporting new variants of concern where they can take up stringent public health measures including contact tracing, genome sequencing of positive samples of persons having history of international travel.