COVID-19: B.1.617 variant of coronavirus now discovered in the UK with around 77 cases

Health authorities in the United Kingdom have identified 77 cases of the highly infectious B.1.617 variant of coronavirus, which was first found in India. The authorities have designated it a Variant Under Investigation. According to Public Health England’s weekly report, the variant first detected in India includes a number of mutations. The reports read, “A new variant has been designated a Variant Under Investigation (VUI) by PHE. The variant, first detected in India, includes a number of mutations including E484Q, L452R, and P681R”. 

The report further added, “PHE has identified 77 cases of this variant in the UK and all appropriate public health interventions will be undertaken, including enhanced contact tracing. This variant has been designated VUI-21APR-01. PHE and international partners continue to monitor the situation closely”. The B.1.617 variant is believed to be largely responsible for India's current second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic as cases have been surging once again. The strain’s mutations make the variant spread faster and partially affect the immunity. 

What is B.1.617 variant?

A global mutation tracker on Friday, April 16, suggested that the B.1.617 variant has been detected in 11 countries. The cumulative prevalence of the B.1.1.7 variant first identified in the UK was 8 per cent. For the South Africa variant, it was just 5 per cent. Cumulative prevalence is a term for  the ratio of the sequences containing a mutant to all sequences collected since the identification of the variant in that location. 

The B.1.617 variant of SARS-CoV-2 carries two mutations, E484Q and L452R. Both these mutations are separately found in many other coronavirus variants, however, these have been reported together for the first time in India. The two mutations are found in the virus’s spike protein.  This helps the virus to bind itself to the human cell’s receptors and gain entry into a host cell.

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