India’s Ministry of Health is concerned about a new version of the corona, which is considered particularly contagious. Now the mutation, unofficially christened “Delta Plus”, has also been discovered in Europe for the first time.
India is in the process of recovering from the violent second corona wave when the Ministry of Health announces new bad news: “Delta Plus” is on the rise. This is the unofficial name of the new virus variant classified as “worrying”. As the name suggests, it is related to the already widespread delta mutation, which was also first identified in India last year.
Initial studies show that the new “Delta Plus” variant is easier to transfer, binds more strongly to lung cells and could possibly be resistant to antibody therapies. A cause for concern for the Ministry of Health in New Delhi, which wants to have the mutation investigated more intensively.
Top virologists so far not worried
Leading virologists are questioning the higher rating of “Delta Plus”. There are still too few facts that prove that the variant is more contagious than others or leads to more serious diseases. “There is still no data to support the claim of a worrying variant,” said Dr. Gagandeep Kang, a leading London virologist for British broadcaster “”. More biological and clinical data are needed to test this.
To date, 166 “Delta Plus” cases have been reported on the global virus database. The variant, also known as B.1.617.2.1 or AY.1, is the delta variant with the additional spike mutation K417N, which also occurs in the beta variant initially discovered in South Africa.
According to the director of the Delhi-based CSIR Institute for Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), Dr. Anurag Agarwal, “all lines of the Delta variant are worrying variants”. So it is not uncommon to refer to “Delta Plus” as such. “We currently have no evidence to suggest that ‘Delta Plus’ should cause public concern or panic,” said Dr. Anurag Agarwal the “”. “We are pursuing this [Variante] carefully and step up all measures in the health sector. ”
“Delta Plus” cases already discovered in ten countries
The World Health Organization (WHO) is currently pursuing “Delta Plus” as part of the Delta variant. In the meantime, however, around 40 “Delta Plus” cases have been recorded in three Indian states and further cases in nine other countries, India’s health minister announced on Wednesday. The USA, China and Russia as well as Switzerland, Poland, Portugal and Great Britain were named, but not Germany.
According to Dr. Jeremy Kamil, a virologist at Louisiana State University, said the Indian government was “more likely to overreact than to be caught off guard later, as was the case with the Delta variant.” India has been heavily criticized internationally for having recognized the danger of the original Delta variant too late.
In the meantime, the official Corona case numbers have fallen significantly again. In the past 24 hours, the country reported 42,640 new infections, the lowest level since March. “I’m not too worried,” said Dr. Kamil the “”. “But there is nothing wrong with keeping an eye on the variant.”
