Recently on the 28th of January, scientists at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR,) and Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) found a new variant of the Novel Coronavirus or COVID-19.
The new variant reported in the southern part of India is said to be milder than the existing variant of COVID-19.
Rakesh Mishra, the Director of CCMB, said the different variant (N440K) which is milder in nature is being researched to ascertain its prevalence in India.
The new variant of the pandemic illness COVID-19 virus was reported at a time when the U.K., found variant is spreading rapidly.
The U.K., found strain of Novel Coronavirus is 70 % more dangerous and has a high rate of transmission.
Mr. Mishea said, “It is not a new variant that we found. It is N440 K. It is a different variant. This is there for some time. This N440K was a very small number in September and October last year. Now it looks like it is getting a much bigger proportion. No symptoms issues with N440K.” He further added, “Either this (the different variant) has become normal or the earlier one became weaker. But certainly, symptom wise if it is not equal, it (the different one) is milder. We don’t have enough data as of now. We are accelerating… I think in coming days we will do large-scale sequencing.”
The new N440K variant was seen in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and other southern states.
However, as of now there is no sufficient data to speak about the new variant and prove its existence in other Indian states.
