In the last 24 hours, India recorded 93,249 cases of Covid19 infections, the highest single-day spike since September 2020. A day before that, 89,129 cases were registered. A week ago, the country had recorded 59,118 cases of infection.
Today’s count was the biggest daily rise in cases since September 19, when 93,337 fresh infections were recorded. With a total of 513 new deaths, the death toll in India has gone up to 1,64,623. The country has been registering a steady increase for the 25th day in a row. The active cases in the country have now surged to 6,91,597. On February 12, the active caseload was at its lowest at 1,35,926 which comprise 1.25 percent of the total infections. The recovery rate has further dropped to 93.14 percent.
Also See: New Mutants of Coronavirus
Eight states that account for 81.42 percent of the infections reported in the last 24 hours, according to the Health Ministry, are Maharashtra, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh.
Adding concern on the international domain regarding the spread of the disease, one case of India’s new ‘double mutant’ COVID variant was confirmed by the Clinical virology lab at Stanford Health care.
In US, the India variant has the L452R mutation found in the California variant, as well as another significant spike mutation, E484Q. This same position is mutated to a different amino acid (K) in both the South Africa and Brazil P1 and P2 variants.
The new double mutant variant has shown up in at least 20 percent of COVID cases in Maharashtra, which is experiencing a huge resurgence in the number of daily infections. Even as the Indian state races to vaccinate all of its residents, it has logged almost 50,000 new cases per day for the past seven days. The urgency for global herd immunity is demonstrated by the easy spread of the virus. The herd immunity will occur when 60-70 percent of the world is resistant to the strains of the virus.
Dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, Ashish Jha recently said that the B117 variant (Kent variant) which originated in the United Kingdom, has emerged in 30 percent of COVID infections in the U.S. and is likely to become the dominant strain. According to the Centres for Disease Control, this B117 variant transmits from one person to the next about 50 percent faster than the original strain and is 60 to 70 percent deadlier.
People of Swale in Kent, UK (origin of B117 lineage) were castigated late November last year for disobedience to measures to contain the spread of the virus. They were subjected to Covid-shaming when the place along with Faversham and Sittingbourne had the highest Covid-infection rates in the country.
In February 2021, Ravi Gupta, a leading microbiologist at the Cambridge Institute for Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Diseases, had asserted that Kent variant of the coronavirus with a key mutation that enables the South African variant to escape some of the vaccines used against it must be taken very seriously in the UK. Prof Gupta is also a member of the government’s scientific advisory body Nervtag (New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group). He had warned that the mutated variant, should be treated with as much concern as the South African variant.
The Kent variant (B117), which spreads twice as fast as the original coronavirus, is now dominant in the UK and is present in many countries around the world.
Pathogens including viruses are known to mutate and differentiate by nature. According to the WHO, a virus replicates or makes copies of itself, which is usual. These changes, by definition, are called “mutations”. A virus with one or more new mutations is referred to as a “variant” of the original virus.
The mutations can also have a difference in genomic sequencing, which may allow them to surpass, or attach themselves to the healthy cells more profoundly.
The three infamous COVID variants which are said to carry the most risks, the ones which have emerged from Kent, UK ( B.1.1.7 variant), South Africa (B.1.351 variant) and Brazil (B.1.1.28.1 or P.1 variant) are all variations of the original virus strain.
With regards to the new mutants, some studies have established that the virus can quickly escape immune defences present along some vital organs, and unleash an attack in more impactful ways.
Fever, which is not predominantly seen with all cases carrying the original strain is considered to be a more severely seen symptom in cases tested positive for the new mutation. Some of the new mutations may enable the coronavirus to spread faster from person to person, and more infections can result in more people getting very sick or dying.
These newer variants of the SARS-COV-2 are smarter in many ways. Since the virus may have a better threshold in surpassing immune defences and antibodies, it is believed that natural antibodies (generated after COVID infection) may not be fully protective in evading a future course of infection, if you are exposed to the newer mutations.
