False reports on N440K trigger travel curbs on Telangana & Andhra Pradesh people

HYDERABAD: A false alarm comparing the infectivity of novel coronavirus mutant N440K with that of the double mutant of Maharashtra B.1.617 and the UK variant B.1.1.7 has created a scare in several parts of the country forcing the governments of Odisha and Delhi to impose travel restrictions, including quarantine, for travellers from both Telugu states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to those places.
It all began with a group of scientists, including from the city-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), publishing a preprint in online scientific portal ‘BioRxiv’ that N440K (also known as B.1.36) was 10 times more infectious than its parent lineage A2a. The research was based on laboratory results. But, the reports wrongly compared N440K with B.1.617 and B.1.1.7 leading to the scare. While B.1.1.7 has already been declared as a variant of concern (VoC), Public Health England on Friday put the sub-lineage of B.1.617 (B.1.617.2) under the VoC category.
According to CCMB scientists, N440K, which was widely prevalent in parts of the country, including AP and Telangana, in the first wave and later has gradually diminished giving way to the double mutant, makes up for 50-60 per cent of cases reported during April 2021. The UK variant is also present in Telugu states. At its peak, N440K caused 35-40 per cent of the positive cases in Andhra Pradesh. But, now its share is between 5 per cent and 10 per cent.
Reports also wrongly called N440K as an ‘Andhra variant’ though it did not evolve in AP. The only Andhra ‘connection’ was that researchers from Kurnool Medical College were part of the team that sequenced the genome of N440K. Reports also described the variant as ‘Visakhapatnam strain’ though it was not specific to any city or state. CCMB former director Rakesh Kumar Mishra said N440K is diminishing but other variants, particularly B.1.617, are taking over its space.
Researcher Vishal Sah, who was part of the study of N440K and its comparison with its parent lineage, said they did not mention that N440K was more dangerous than the UK strain or the double mutant. “A few days ago, we published a preprint from our lab that N440K variant has more infectious fitness than its parent lineage A2a (also known as D614G mutant or B.1.1.8) and an unrelated A3i variant (also known as B.6). We have also suggested that based on the sequence information on GISAID till April 24, 2021, the proportion of N440K variants are increasing, clustering in some regions more than the others,” Sah said, adding that the study did not say N440K was the deadliest.
KS Jawahar Reddy, chairman, AP State Covid Command Control Centre, said that B.1.617 was present in AP and Telangana. “B.1.617 is spreading quickly in India. The variant was detected in samples collected from Maharashtra, Karnataka, West Bengal, Delhi, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, AP and Telangana. According to the World Health Organisation, this Indian strain has been detected in at least 17 countries, including the UK, the US and Singapore,” Jawahar Reddy said.