COVID-19: Nepal confirms presence of B.1.617 Coronavirus strain in country

After having to confirm two variants of coronavirus, Nepal on Tuesday confirmed that there were cases of the third variant B.1.617.2 in the country. Nepal's Ministry of Health and Population said that three variants of the virus have been detected in the country. 

B.1.617.2 Coronavirus Variant

Lineage B.1.617 variant, also known as G/452R.V3, is one of the known variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. As per reports, it was first identified in Maharashtra, India on 5 October 2020. It has been referred to as a double mutation variant. 

On 6 May 2021, Public Health England escalated B.1.617.2 from a Variant Under Investigation to a Variant of Concern basis an assessment of transmissibility. They said that it displayed evidence of higher transmissibility and reduced neutralization. The variant is said to be responsible for India's devastating second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

An assistant spokesperson for Nepal's Ministry of Health and Population Dr Sameer Adhiikari stated, 

"B.1.617.2 is the new variant seen in India while B.1.617.2 is the one seen in the UK. Earlier last year, Nepal reported the variant arising from China. With this, three variants of virus have been detected. According to result of gene sequencing of samples collected from the patient of 35 districts across the country, B.1.617.2 variant was detected in 97 per cent samples while the B.1.617.1 variant was reported from other three per cent samples."

The sequencing was carried out at CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology in India, a WHO recognised centre of excellence in genomic sequencing, the release stated. The ministry also urged the people to strictly abide by the public health protocols as the new variant is more infectious than the older ones and even deadlier for people of all age groups.

Nepal's COVID-19 tally

Nepal on Tuesday recorded 8,203 fresh COVID-19 cases along with 6,891 recoveries and 196 deaths. A total of 20,979 samples were tested till Tuesday afternoon and 8,203 tested positive for COVID-19. Nepal's total count of COVID-19 cases stands at 372,354 including 352,414 recoveries and 5,411 deaths. 

There are 107,082 COVID-19 patients in home isolation, while 7,447 in institutional isolations, 1,590 in ICUs and 390 on ventilators as of Tuesday.