COVID-19: US detects first case of India's 'double mutant' variant in California

Researchers at Stanford University on April 3 said that they have found at least one case of a new coronavirus variant first detected in India. According to NBC News, Stanford Health Care Spokesperson Lisa Kim said that the new variant has two mutations, including one found in the California strain, in the spiky protein that the virus latches onto. Kim further informed that the variant was found in a patient from the San Francisco Bay Area by the school’s Clinical Virology Laboratory. 

It is worth mentioning that the COVID-19 rates have been decreasing across California following a deadly winter surge that started in late November and didn’t ease up until after the new year. The drop in cases, however, has allowed some of the state’s most populous counties, including Los Angeles, to begin relaxing restrictions and gradually reopen the economy. To date, California has recorded more COVID-19 cases than any state in the country, with over 3.5 million known infections and at least 58,000 deaths, according to the department of health. 

‘Double mutant variant’ 

Meanwhile, in March, the Indian Health Ministry revealed that the Genome sequencing by the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics (INSACOG) has detected coronavirus variant with ‘double mutation’. Doctors in India noted that mutations in rapidly spreading viruses are common but also alerted that it is a matter of concern but not panic. The government said that following an analysis of samples collected from Maharashtra showed “an increase in the fraction of samples with the E484Q and L452R mutations" compared with December last year. 

By "double-variant", Health Ministry means that the new strain detected in India has a mixture of two previously known variants. As per BBC report, Dr Jeremy Kamil, a virologist at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center Shreveport has noted that E484Q and L452R mutations found in India's 'double mutant' variant is similar to mutations seen in the past. E484Q is similar to E484K, which is a mutation seen in South Africa’s B.1.351 variant and Brazil’s P.1 variant, both that emerged independently. Meanwhile, L452R mutation first caught the attention of researchers as a part of another lineage in the United States of B.1.427/B.1.429, often called the 'California variant'.

(Image: AP)