The Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology (CSIR-CCMB) has released a study of coronavirus variants that the virus variant N440K is spreading a lot more in South India.
The CCMB researchers and scientists analysed more than 5,000 Covid-19 variants in India to find how they have evolved throughout the pandemic. The study says that even though mutated variants of coronavirus have set warning bells ringing in other countries, their prevalence in India has been low so far.
As per reports, the new variant N440K was a very limited number in September and October last year. But now it is getting a much bigger proportion. It can also escape neutralising antibodies.
“We now have emerging evidence that N440K is spreading a lot more in the southern states. A closer surveillance is needed to understand its spread properly. Accurate and timely detection of new variants that may show greater infectivity or worse clinical symptoms, including immune escape, will be extremely important to preempt disastrous consequences,” said CCMB Director and corresponding author in the study, Dr RK Mishra.