India detects new ‘double mutant’ variant as Covid-19 cases spike, with fears of

But by the start of March, it became clear that cases were slowly on the increase again — and they have exploded in the past few weeks.

India has now reported a total of more than 11.7 million cases and 160,000 related deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

“I would say that it is the beginning of a second wave,” Randeep Guleria, director at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, said Wednesday. “It is something that has already been seen in many European countries; we seem to be following them.”

There are a number of factors — one being Covid fatigue, and the possibility people are being less cautious due to the winter decline in infections. “You see that in the community, when you go out, wearing a mask has become less and less,” Guleria said. “We see crowds developing, partying, a lot of marriage ceremonies are happening in India.”

Another factor could be the rise of “variants which will come to India from other parts of the world,” he said, pointing to the strain first detected in the UK, which has since spread in numerous Indian states…

Variants and mutations

All viruses evolve over time, and sometimes make changes when they replicate, causing mutations. Some mutations have little effect — but others could make the variant more easily transmissible, or cause infections with more severe symptoms.

From around 10,787 samples analyzed by the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics from 18 states, 771 cases of variants of concern were detected, the majority of which were the UK strain, according to the Ministry of Health. Thirty-four were the variant first identified in South Africa and one was variant P.1 from Brazil.

Although the ministry said these are not correlated to the recent spike in cases, the variants have mostly been detected in states of “grave concern” that are seeing the highest numbers, including Punjab and Maharashtra. And now double mutations have been reported.

So far this year in Maharashtra, “there has been an increase in the fraction of samples with the E484Q and L452R mutations,” the ministry said in its news release. They were found in 15-20% of samples and do not match any previously cataloged variants of concern, the ministry said, adding “such mutations confer immune escape and increased infectivity.”

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