New Delhi:  As the country is grappling with daunting rise in the deadly coronavirus cases, media is abuzz with reports about a new variant, ‘N440K’, which  is spreading a lot more in the southern states especially Andhra Pradesh as compared to the other COVID variants. Reportedly, this new variant of SARS-CoV-2 is the reason behind the havoc caused in Visakhapatnam, Karnataka, Telangana and other southern parts. Besides, as per the reports, this virus was also found in parts of Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.

What is ‘N440K’?

Going by the news reports, N440K is a powerful variant that spreads rapidly, leading to severe COVID-related complications. In fact, reportedly, it is 15 times more virulent than the original variant because if a person gets infected with the original variant, he/she would reach the dyspnea or hypoxia stage within a week, but if a person gets infected with N440K variant, he/she would reach the serious condition-stage within just three-four days. Also, many reports suggested that the Andhra COVID strain can transmit to more than four people within a short span. But, wait. Is it true? Is this variant lethal? Let’s find out.

What did CCMB find about N440K?

Debunking all the latest reports, the Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) recently said that there is no evidence regarding the Andhra COVID strain being deadly or more infectious than other COVID-19 strains. Yes, you heard us right!

Speaking to The Print, CCMB’s Director Rakesh Mishra said that N440K is less than 5 per cent in the state and is on the verge of getting disappeared or replaced by other existing COVID-19 variants.

“There is no unique AP strain or a Vishakapatnam strain. Neither were any existing strains found to be more infectious or deadly than what we already saw before. The N440K has been around for quite some time and was prevalent in other southern states (Karnataka, Kerala) earlier. But now the N440K in Andhra is less than 5 per cent and is likely to be replaced by a double mutant or any other variant. It could have been around during the first wave also,” Rakesh Mishra was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, CCMB’s Vishal Seth, one of the authors of the pre-print, took to his Twitter handle and clarified that the study did not compare the virus with B.1.17 UK or B.1.617 Indian variant. He wrote, “We did not compare the infective titer of N440K with the UK or double mutant in this study. We compared it with its parent strain which did not have N440K mutation and with another strain which is now almost lost among the population.”

Check out the series of tweets here

He also shared the link of the pre-print in his series of tweets.

Besides, speaking to The New Indian Express, Mishra said the N440K strain, which was found in 20-30 per cent of samples in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Telangana will fade away in the coming weeks.

However, people are advised to strictly adhere to Covid Appropriate Behaviour like wearing mask, maintaining physical distance, personal hygiene and proper sanitation, as the new variant of Covid-19 — B.1.617 known as the ‘Double Mutant’ or ‘Indian Variant,’ is steadily becoming a dominant ‘variant’ of Coronavirus, he said.

Currently, experts are focusing their study on the Double Mutant and looking at the patterns to find out if it was the reason for the sudden surge in Covid cases during the second wave in the country.