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The chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan from WHO blamed huge social mixing and large gatherings as responsible for the massive second wave.
AFP reported that World Health Organization (WHO) chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said on Saturday that the coronavirus variant spreading in India was more contagious and contained some mutations that could possibly be resistant to antibodies produced by vaccination. In an interview with the news agency, the scientist said that these factors were contributing to the mass outbreak of infection in the second wave.
The B.1.617 variant of Covid-19, commonly known as the double mutant strain, was first found in India in October last year. As the name suggests, stress involves two types of viruses. The E484Q mutation has characteristics of previously identified variants – E484K – seen in the fast-spreading Brazilian and South African variants, making it highly communicable. On the other hand, the L452R mutations help the virus to exit the body’s immune response. The double mutation strain was later renamed B.1.617.
Last month, the WHO said the variant was found in 17 countries. However, the health body has so far listed the mutation as a “variant of interest”, which prevents it from declaring it “a type of concern”. Swaminathan said on Saturday that the WHO was likely to create a classification.
She further added in her statement, “B 1.617 is likely to be a variant of concern because it has some mutations which increase transmission, and which also potentially could make [it] resistant to antibodies that are generated by vaccination or by natural infection”. She further said that a large number of infections in India bring new and more dangerous forms.
Swaminathan said, “The more the virus is replicating and spreading and transmitting, the more chances are that… mutations will develop and adapt”. She also added, “Variants which accumulate a lot of mutations may ultimately become resistant to the current vaccines that we have”.
“In a large country like India, you could have transmission at low levels, which is what happened for many months,” Swaminathan said. “At that point, it’s very hard to suppress, because it’s then involving tens of thousands of people and it’s multiplying at a rate at which it’s very difficult to stop.”
Swaminathan also said that vaccination is not sufficient to curb the outbreak in India as it would take “months, if not years” for 70-80% of the country’s population to vaccinate more than 130 crores.
Source: Scroll.in
