Written By: Longjam Dineshwori | Updated : September 3, 2021 4:01 PM IST
No Case Of MU Variant Detected In India
First identified in Colombia in January, the MU strain of coronavirus was classified as a 'variant of interest' by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on August 30. The organisation has warned that this new variant, also called B.1.621, shows signs of possible resistance to the vaccines. Luckily, no cases of MU variant have been detected so far in India, according to the Union government.
The Indian Council of Medical Research Director General Dr. Balram Bhargav said that they are closely monitoring the new coronavirus variant.
More than 51,000 samples have been analysed so far, but no case of MU variant was detected, he said.
NITI Ayog Member (Health) Dr V.K. Paul also ensured that government and health scientists are keeping a close watch on this variant of interest. He stressed the importance of getting both doses of vaccine and following the Covid appropriate behaviour to fight against any Covid variant.
This variant has also been reported in several South American countries and in Europe. According to the WHO, it has a constellation of mutations that indicates its ability to evade the immune response created by the vaccines. "Preliminary data presented to the Virus Evolution Working Group show a reduction in neutralization capacity of convalescent and vaccines sera similar to that seen for the Beta variant, but this needs to be confirmed by further studies," the WHO said.
Currently, the global prevalence of the Mu variant among sequenced COVID-19 cases is below 0.1%, but its prevalence has consistently increased in Colombia (39%) and Ecuador (13%), the organisation said.
Meanwhile, another new variant is apparently spreading across the globe. Known as C.1.2, this variant was first detected in South Africa in May this year. Scientists from National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) and the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform (KRISP) in South Africa have described it as the potential variant of interest and they are closely monitoring its development in the country.
As of August 13, C.1.2 variant has been detected in China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mauritius, England, New Zealand, Portugal and Switzerland, they said.
However, the WHO has not classified it as a variant of concern or variant to follow.
