How Many COVID-19 Strains Present In INDIA?

Amid the second wave of the pandemic gripping the country, India has also reported many coronavirus variants leading to concerns of mutations causing an increase in the number of fresh infections in the country.

With a high number of people getting infected, the chances of the virus mutating at a faster pace has also increased.

Recently, the National Institute of Virology (NIV) detected a strain of coronavirus with a double mutation in samples collected from Maharashtra. The double mutant strain of Coronavirus has been named B.1.617.

However, within a few days of its discovery in India, as many as 77 cases of the variant strain have been reported in the UK. These developments are indicative of how quickly variant strains can spread and highlight the need for increased genome sequencing to map and track the various mutations.

Here’s a list of the various coronavirus strains found in India-

1) Double mutant strain (B.1.617 variant)

The B.1.617 variant contains mutations from two separate virus variants, namely E484Q and L452R. The double mutant strain was found in samples of saliva collected from Maharashtra, Punjab, and Delhi.

According to health experts, the L452R variant was first found in the US, whereas the E484Q variant is indigenous.

The double mutant variant was identified by carrying out genomic sequencing on the latest samples by the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics (INSACOG), a group of 10 national laboratories under India's health ministry.

The constituent mutated strains E484Q and L452R were found to be highly infective with high transmission rates. Thus they make B.1.617 more infectious and deadly.

According to the health ministry, this variant can also increase infection rates and easily surpass immune defenses.

The Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics (INSACOG), a group of 10 national laboratories under India's health ministry, carried out genomic sequencing on the latest samples. Genomic sequencing is a testing process to map the entire genetic code of an organism - in this case, the virus.

The genetic code of the virus works like its instruction manual. Mutations in viruses are common but most of them are insignificant and do not cause any change in its ability to transmit or cause serious infection. But some mutations, like the ones in the UK or South Africa variant lineages, can make the virus more infectious and in some cases even deadlier.

Virologist Shahid Jameel explained that a "double mutation in key areas of the virus's spike protein may increase these risks and allow the virus to escape the immune system".

The spike protein is the part of the virus that it uses to penetrate human cells.

2) Brazilian Strain (P.1 Variant)

Amid these developments, a recent study has found that the Brazilian variant of the virus is likely to evade immunity gained from previous infection. This means that if a person has already been infected by any of the other strains of the virus, they might still be susceptible to the Brazilian variant and there’s a chance of reinfection.

The study has also found the Brazilian variant is likely to be more transmissible than other strains of SARS-CoV-2.

The research, published in the journal ‘Science’, used data from Manaus city in Brazil to characterize P.1 and its properties, including 184 samples of genetic sequencing data.

Manaus is facing a massive second wave outbreak, with high number of daily deaths and instances of the health care systems collapsing.

The researchers from University of Copenhagen in Denmark and colleagues in Brazil found that genetically speaking P.1 is different from the previous strains of coronavirus.

It has acquired 17 mutations including an important trio of mutations in the spike protein -- K417T, E484K and N501Y, they said.

The spike protein helps the coronavirus to infect the human cells.

"Our epidemiological model indicates that P.1 is likely to be more transmissible than previous strains of coronavirus and likely to be able to evade immunity gained from infection with other strains," said corresponding author of the study, Samir Bhatt, a researcher at University of Copenhagen.

The researchers noted that P.1 emerged in Manaus around November 2020.

The variant has since spread to several other states in Brazil as well as many other countries around the world, including India.

"It went from not being detectable in our genetic samples to accounting for 87 per cent of the positive samples in just seven weeks," Bhatt said.

The researchers then used an epidemiological model to estimate how transmissible P.1 seemed to be.

They also estimated signs of P.1 evading immunity gained from previous infection.

"Roughly speaking, our model incorporates many data sources such as mortality counts and genetic sequences and compares two different virus strains to see which one best explains the scenario that unfolded in Manaus," Bhatt said.

"One was the ''normal coronavirus'' and the other was dynamically adjusted using machine learning to best fit the actual events in Brazil," he said.

This modelling allowed the researchers to conclude that P.1 is likely to be between 1.7 and 2.4 times more transmissible than non-P1-lineages of the coronavirus.

They also conclude that P.1 is likely to be able to evade between 10 and 46 per cent of the immunity gained from infection with non-P.1 coronavirus.

"We have to caution extrapolating these results to be applicable anywhere else in the world. However, our results do underline the fact that more surveillance of the infections and of the different strains of the virus is needed in many countries in order to get the pandemic fully under control," Bhatt added.

3) South African Strain (B.1.351 Variant)

According to reports, this strain was first reported in the country in February. This strain contains a mutation called N501Y that makes it more transmissible. According to the WHO, this variant “is less susceptible to antibody neutralization” than previous variants.

4) UK Strain (B.1.1.7 Variant)

India reported the UK variant of coronavirus for the first time on December 29. Since then hundreds of cases of the new strain have been reported across the country, with maximum number of cases being reported in Punjab.

While there’s no evidence to prove that it’s more fatal, scientists believe that this strain is 70 per cent more transmissible than the regular Covid-19 strain.