Delta Plus variant not as big a threat as perceived: Doctors

HYDERABAD: Preliminary findings suggest the Delta Plus or A.Y 4.2 variant might not be as big a threat as perceived, say experts from the Council Of Scientific And Industrial Research–Centre For Cellular And Molecular Biology (CSIR–CCMB). 

The researchers had sequenced each and every sample for this study and found that 90 per cent of the samples were of the Delta variant and that the monoclonal therapy was found effective against this more deadly variant of the virus. The researchers said that while there was no study done on the impact of this therapy on the Delta plus variant, it is likely going to be effective against it.

“The first thing is that we have found too few A.Y 4.2 variant viruses, and when we manually check them, they are not exactly like the Delta plus variant seen in the UK and Russia and are misclassified in some senses. However, this A.Y 4.2 has no significant changes from the main Delta variant itself,” explained Dr Karthik Bharadwaj, Principal Clinical Geneticist, CCMB.

He further explained that variant A.Y 4.2 is not even classified as a variant of interest and that researchers were only looking at it as certain epidemiological data shows higher transmissible characteristics, which are yet to be proven.