New virus variant may be more infectious

New Delhi, August 30

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A new variant of SARS-CoV-2 has been detected in South Africa and many other countries globally and could be more transmissible and evade protection provided by vaccines, according to a study.

C.1.2 has high mutation rate

• C.1.2 lineage has a mutation rate of about 41.8 mutations per year
• It’s twice as fast as the current global mutation rate of other variants
• Found in South Africa, China, Congo, Mauritius, England, New Zealand, Portugal and Switzerland

Scientists from National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) and the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform (KRISP) in South Africa said the potential variant of interest C.1.2 was first detected in the country in May this year.

According to the yet-to-be peer-reviewed study posted on the preprint repository MedRxiv on August 24, C.1.2 has mutated substantially compared to C.1, one of the lineages which dominated the SARS-CoV-2 infections in the first wave in South Africa.

The new variant has more mutations than other variants of concern (VOCs) or variants of interest (VOIs) detected worldwide so far, the researchers said.

Virologist Upasana Ray noted that the variant is a result of numerous mutations accumulated in C.1.2 line in the spike protein, which makes it a lot different than the original virus that was identified in Wuhan, China, in 2019.

“It could be more transmissible and has potential to spread fast. Since there are so many mutations in the spike protein, it could result in immune escape and thus a challenge for the vaccination drive worldwide if allowed to spread,” said Ray, from Kolkata’s CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Biology. — PTI