Delta variant accounts for 80% new COVID cases in India, led to 2nd wave: Dr NK Arora

The Delta variant of COVID was responsible for over 80% of new cases and reportedly led to the second wave of the pandemic in India, Dr NK Arora informed on Monday. the co-chair of the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium underlined that India may witness a spike in COVID cases if a new and more infectious variant emerges.

Dr NK Arora stated that the Delta variant was 40-60% more transmissible than the Alpha variant of COVID and that it had already spread to more than 80 countries. According to Dr Arora, the Delta variant has mutations in its spike protein, which helps in binding with the ACE2 receptors present on the surface of the cells more firmly. This process makes it more transmissible and capable of scraping the body’s immunity. However, Dr Arora clarified that the current vaccines available in India are effective against the Delta variant as per the studies of ICMR.

Dr. N.K. Arora said, “The B.1.617.2, a variant of COVID-19 known as the Delta variant, was first identified in October 2020 in India, and was primarily responsible for the second wave in the country, today accounting for over 80% of new COVID-19 cases."

Delta Plus Variant in India

According to a Union Health Ministry Statement, India has recorded a total number of 55-60 cases of Delta Plus variant i.e., AY.1 and AY.2, across 11 states including Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, and many other states. The new variant is still under the process of being studied properly and reach to a conclusion of its transmissibility, virulence, and vaccine escape characteristics.

Dr NK Arora warns of other COVID variants in future

Addressing the prevention of potential waves of COVID in the future, Dr Arora stated that a virus begins infecting a part of the population, which is most susceptible and also exposed to the infection. He explained that the virus diminishes after it successfully infects a large proportion of the population and strikes back when the immunity developed in the people post-natural infection fades.  Further, emphasised the vaccination drive and the need to follow COVID appropriate behaviour in order to fight against future waves.

“The cases may go up if a new, more infectious variant comes. In other words, next wave will be driven by a virus variant to which significant proportion of population is susceptible,” he said.

Dr Arora also counted on the number of labs under INSACOG's ambit which help in the detection of new variants. He said that the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG), established in December 2020, was a consortium of 10 laboratories. Recently,18 more laboratories became part of it. Dr Arora stated that the idea is to have a strong network of laboratories to do genomic surveillance of the SARS-CoV-2 and correlate whole genomics sequencing (WGS) data with clinical and epidemiological data to see whether or not a variant is more transmissible, causes more severe disease, escaping immunity or causing breakthrough infections, affecting vaccine efficacy, and diagnosed by current diagnostic tests.

Dr. Arora said, “We have formed 180-190 clusters with around four districts in each cluster. Regular random swab samples and samples of patients who develop severe illness, vaccine breakthrough infections, and other atypical clinical presentations, are collected and sent to regional laboratories for sequencing. The current capacity of the country is to sequence over 50,000 samples per month; earlier it was approximately 30,000 samples.”

(with PTI inputs)

(IMAGE: UNSPLASH)