{"id":1988,"date":"2021-06-23T14:41:12","date_gmt":"2021-06-23T14:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/?p=1988"},"modified":"2021-06-23T14:47:15","modified_gmt":"2021-06-23T14:47:15","slug":"explainer-what-is-the-delta-plus-coronavirus-variant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/?p=1988","title":{"rendered":"Explainer: What is the Delta Plus coronavirus variant?"},"content":{"rendered":"

What is Delta Plus?<\/h3>\n

The variant, called Delta Plus in India, was\u00a0in a Public Health England bulletin on June 11.<\/p>\n

It is a sublineage of the Delta variant first detected in India and has acquired the spike protein mutation, called K417N, which is also found in the Beta variant first identified in South Africa.<\/p>\n

Some scientists worry that the mutation, coupled with other existing features of the Delta variant, could make it more transmissible.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mutation K417N has been of interest as it is present in the Beta variant (B.1.351 lineage), which was reported to have immune evasion property,\u201d India\u2019s health ministry said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Shahid Jameel, a top Indian virologist, said the K417N was known to reduce the effectiveness of a cocktail of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies.<\/p>\n

Where all it has been found?<\/h3>\n

As of June 16 , at least 197 cases have been found in 11 countries \u2013 Britain (36), Canada (1), India (8), Japan (15), Nepal (3), Poland (9), Portugal (22), Russia (1), Switzerland (18), Turkey (1), the United States (83).<\/p>\n

India said on Wednesday about 40 cases of the variant have been observed in the states of Maharashtra, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh, with \u201cno significant increase in prevalence\u201d. The earliest case in India is from a sample taken on April 5.<\/p>\n

Britain said its first five cases were sequenced on April 26 and they were contacts of individuals who had travelled from, or transited through, Nepal and Turkey.<\/p>\n

No deaths were reported among the United Kingdom and Indian cases.<\/p>\n

\n

What are the worries?<\/h3>\n

Studies are continuing in India and globally to test the effectiveness of vaccines against this mutation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWHO is tracking this variant as part of the Delta variant, as we are doing for other Variants of Concern with additional mutations,\u201d the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement sent to Reuters news agency.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the moment, this variant does not seem to be common, currently accounting for only a small fraction of the Delta sequences \u2026 Delta and other circulating Variants of Concern remain a higher public health risk as they have demonstrated increases in transmission,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

But India\u2019s health ministry warned that regions where it has been found \u201cmay need to enhance their public health response by focusing on surveillance, enhanced testing, quick contact-tracing and priority vaccination\u201d.<\/p>\n

\n

There are worries Delta Plus would inflict another wave of infections on India after it emerged from the world\u2019s worst surge in cases only recently.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mutation itself may not lead to a third wave in India \u2013 that also depends on COVID-appropriate behaviour, but it could be one of the reasons,\u201d said Tarun Bhatnagar, a scientist with the state-run Indian Council of Medical Research.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

SOURCE: REUTERS, Aljazeera<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is Delta Plus? The variant, called Delta Plus in India, was\u00a0in a Public Health…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1994,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[40,4,42],"tags":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/del.jpg",770,513,false],"thumbnail":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/del-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/del-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/del-768x512.jpg",640,427,true],"large":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/del.jpg",640,426,false],"1536x1536":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/del.jpg",770,513,false],"2048x2048":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/del.jpg",770,513,false],"enternews-featured":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/del.jpg",770,513,false],"enternews-medium":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/del-720x475.jpg",720,475,true],"enternews-thumbnail":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/del.jpg",473,315,false]},"author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/?author=1"},"category_info":"Health<\/a> Stories<\/a> World<\/a>","tag_info":"World","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1988"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1988"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1993,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1988\/revisions\/1993"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}