Coronavirus Disease Weekly News 09May 2021
The news posted last week for the coronavirus 2019-nCoV (aka SARS-CoV-2), which produces COVID-19 disease, has been surveyed and some important articles are summarized here. The articles are more or less organized with general virus news and anecdotes first, then stories from around the US, followed by an increased number of items from other countries around the globe. Economic news related to COVID-19 is found here.
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Summary:
Major coronavirus metrics continue to head lower in the US, and now also globally. New cases in the US during the week ending May 8th were down 18.6% from new cases during the week ending May 1st, and are now down 83.3% from the January peak; this week also saw fewer new cases than any week since September. This week s US deaths attributed to Covid were 6.8% lower than the prior week s, and down 80.5% from the January hig
COVID Double Mutant A Dominant Variant in Karnataka, AP and Telangana May 06, 2021, 14:20 IST
Scientists at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad, on Tuesday said that the double mutant (the B.1.617 variant) of the coronavirus is fast replacing the N440K variant in South India.
After an exhaustive analysis of 5,000 variants, earlier this year, CCMB found that N440K is spreading fast but in recent reports, it is known that B.1.617 is fast replacing N440K in south India. Lineages with #N440K are not the dominant ones in the covid second wave. While N440K was indeed a mutation of concern in South India during and after the first wave, current data shows that it is essentially replaced by new VOCs such as B.1.617 and B.1.17, Divya Tej Sowpati, a scientist with the CCMB, said.
B.1.617 is fast replacing N440K, including in Kerala, say scientists. (Representational)
New Delhi:
The B.1.617 variant of the coronavirus, also known as the double mutant, is fast replacing the N440K variant in south India, scientists at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) said on Tuesday.
Former CCMB director Rakesh Mishra said the double mutant is now a dominant variant in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and now Telangana.
After an exhaustive analysis of 5,000 variants earlier this year, the CCMB had found that N440K is spreading a lot more in the southern states compared to the other variants.
The latest data, posted by Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Flu Data (GISAID) on the variants of novel coronavirus in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka, shows that B.1.617 represented in about 50% cases registered during March, while B.1.1.7 showed up in about 10% cases. The percentage of N440K came down to less than 10% from the peak of about 70% in February. At the same time, the presence of B.1 lineage went up to around 10 or 12% during March.
Major variants like B.1.1.7, B.1 and N440K were also noticed in significant numbers. Other variants in circulation since March 2020 made up 10%.
Commenting on the decline of N440K variant in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, former CCMB director Dr Rakesh Kumar Mishra said: “The N440K variant is diminishing and likely to disappear soon”.
The N440K variant of coronavirus, which wreaked havoc during the first wave of the pandemic in the country is diminishing and likely to disappear soon, scientists at CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) said. Dismissing media reports that N440K is the variant causing chaos in Visakhapatnam and other parts of Andhra Pradesh, Divya Tej Sowpati a scientist at CCMB said while N440K was indeed a mutation of concern in South India during and after the first wave, current data show it is replaced by new variants such as B1617 and B117. N440K is at very low levels in Visakhapatnam and Andhra Pradesh in general.