There are greater than 7,000 coronavirus mutations in India of which some might pose a severe danger, a senior scientist mentioned on Monday.Rakesh Mishra, Director of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, mentioned among the many variants, N440K is spreading much more within the southern states.
The CCMB alone has carried out an exhaustive evaluation of over 5,000 coronavirus variants in India and the way they’ve developed over the course of the pandemic.
A workforce of the CCMB scientists additionally printed a paper on their findings ‘SARS-CoV-2 genomics: An Indian perspective on sequencing viral variants.’
“There are more than 7,000 coronavirus mutations in the country,” mentioned Mishra, who can be one of many co-authors of the paper.
The Hyderabad-based institute has been finding out the evolution of the virus, its mutations and strains ever because the pandemic hit the nation.
Mishra, nonetheless, added that not each mutation turns into a variant.
He added that it’s essential to step up sequencing.
“India has so far not been sequencing SARSCoV-2 isolates to full capacity, having deposited only about 6,400 genomes of the over 10.4 million recorded cases (0.06 per cent). Exploiting advances in genomic epidemiology by monitoring and increasing sequencing efforts following local spikes will go a long way in staying on top of mutations of concern while their biology and effects are studied in greater detail,” the paper mentioned.
After the evolution of the UK and Brazilian strains of coronavirus that are discovered to be extra transmissible, the Indian authorities stepped up sequencing of the genomes.
An Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomic Consortia (INSACOG) comprising 10 institutes was additionally fashioned for this goal. The CCMB is part of the consortium.
