PremiumThe 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 recently said
Amid an alarming surge in new Covid-19 cases across the country, a man in Kurnool has filed an FIR against TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu for allegedly creating fear among people about the N440K strain.
The case was lodged in Kurnool 1 town police station under sections 188 and 505(1)(b)(2) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 54 of the Disaster Management Act.
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Premium Premium The complainant is one M Subbaiah, who alleged Naidu claimed that the coronavirus N440K strain was born in Kurnool city, and caused enormous damage to humans.
He stated that Naidu has created panic among the people of Kurnool by saying that the N440K coronavirus strain is still prevalent and is deadly as compared to other strains.
Earlier, state minister of transport and information and public relations Perni Venkataramaiah (Perni Nani) had clarified that there was no clear diagnosis about the mutant strain in Andhra Pradesh and said Naidu is "more dangerous than Covid-19".
Addressing a press conference, the minister had said that the state government has been relentlessly working to provide medical services beyond its means, but Naidu is trying to 'defame' the state image by falsely accusing the government and scaring people with false rumours.
"No confirmation has been made on the spread of N440K virus and senior scientists have also confirmed that there is no new mutant virus in the country except B.1.617...Chandrababu Naidu is trying to gain from these situations by making cheap politics around," he had said.
What do scientists say?
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) recently said.
They have also debunked the rumours that the N440K variant of coronavirus is dangerous than previous variants.
N440K strain, also known as B.1.36, was detected in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Telangana last year. However, its impact has suddenly dropped in March, and now "the share among the positives is very minimal", according to CCMB institute.
The Hyderabad-based institute further cited World Health Organization's weekly epidemiological reports and said that even the WHO mentioned B.1.617 as the "Variant of Interest" and did not say anything about N440K.
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