India has a new sub-variant of the highly contagious Omicron lineage, which is the coronavirus, ba.2.75, an Israeli health expert told IANS on Sunday. According to the expert, the new Omicron sub-variant already exists and has been detected in about 10 Indian states. This included 69 such cases from Delhi (1), Haryana (6), Himachal Pradesh (3), Jammu (1), Karnataka (10), Madhya Pradesh (5), Maharashtra (27), Telangana (2), India . Uttar Pradesh (1), and West Bengal (13). On the other hand, the Indian Health Ministry is yet to officially confirm the detection of the sub-version in the country.
In a series of tweets, Dr Shay Fleshon with the Central Virology Laboratory at Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer said 85 sequences from eight countries have been uploaded so far to NextStrain, an open-source platform for genomic data.
According to experts, apart from India, seven other countries have also reported the Omicron sub-variant. This includes Japan (1), Germany (2), UK (6), Canada (2), US (2), Australia (1) and New Zealand (2), according to NextStrain data.
“So far none of the broadcasts based on scenes outside India have been tracked,” Fleation wrote on Twitter.
Is the new BA.2.75 Omicron sub-variant dangerous?
Dr Fleishon says it is too early to tell whether BA.2.75 will be the next major variant, however, the increase seen in these sub-versions “is at a level not seen in the second generation variants from other variants of concern”. Has been”. The lab also noted that “BA.2.75 will have an antibody escape that is similar to BA.4/5 with respect to the current vaccine”.
It was based on the Omicron lineage with mutations in the S1 segment of the spike protein and specifically in the part of the spike protein that the virus uses to attach to and gain entry to cells.
Furthermore, so far these second generation variants have been found within a region only in a few cases. This is the first time the second generation version from Omicron has spread to multiple regions.
what other scientists say
Thomas Peacock, a scientist at Imperial College London, said on Twitter, the sub-version is worth “keeping a close eye on”.
BA.2.75 was also flagged off by the Bloom Lab at the Fred Hutch Research Institute in the US.
In a tweet posted this week, the institute said the sub-version “is worth tracking, as it has appreciable antigenic changes relative to its parent BA.2”.
The lab pointed to two mutations as key: G446S and R493Q.
(with IANS inputs)