'Delta Plus not a variant of concern yet': Centre says keeping an eye on the new Covid strain

NEW DELHI: The government on Tuesday said that it has kept an eye on Delta Plus, the new strain of Covid virus, which is yet to be classified as a variant of concern.

This virus strain was first identified in March but it remains to be studied whether this is more transmissible, immune evasive, or capable of causing more severe disease.

In a press briefing on Covid status in the country, VK Paul, head of the national Covid task force said that Delta variant or B.1.617 strain, first detected in Maharashtra in India, played a major role in the second wave of the pandemic in the country.

“An additional mutation of this variant, namely Delta Plus, has been found and submitted to the global data system,” said Paul, adding that it had emerged in Europe in March and was brought into the public domain on June 13.

However, Paul said that the new Delta Plus strain is yet to be classified as a "variant of concern," adding that the government is keeping a close eye on the progress of the said variant.

"As per data available in the public domain, this variant nullifies the use of monoclonal antibodies, currently being used in mild moderate Covid patients with good results. We will study and learn more about this,” Paul said.

The delta plus or B.1.617.2.1 variant is characterised by the acquisition of K417N mutation, according to scientists and the mutation is in the spike protein of SARS CoV 2, which helps the virus enter and infect the human cells.

New research findings show that there are two groups of K417N - one of them is internationally distributed and the other one is found on the genome sequences uploaded to global science initiative GISAID by the United States.

By last week, 63 genomes of delta plus variant had been identified on GISAID from Canada, Germany, Nepal, Russia, India, Switzerland, Poland, Portugal, Japan, and the US.

Till a few days back, there were 36 cases of the new variant in the UK while it made up 6% of all cases in the US.