Indian Researchers Discover New Variant Of COVID-19, Suggest Vaccine Screening

Research illustration. (ThisisEngineering RAEng /Unsplash)

JAKARTA - India recorded its lowest new case of COVID-19 infection since April 2, when a group of Indian researchers discovered a new variant of COVID-19 carried by travelers.

The Indian Ministry of Health announced there were 86,498 new cases of COVID-19 infection in the last 24 Hours as of Tuesday 8 June. Meanwhile, the death toll from COVID-19 in India increased by 2,123 people. In total, India has now recorded 28,996,473 cases of infection with 351,309 deaths.

Launching TASS, the daily number of COVID-19 cases is the lowest since April 2, when the Ministry of Health recorded 81,466 cases. In addition, fewer than 100,000 COVID-19 cases were registered for the first time since April 5, when 103,558 daily cases were confirmed.

Meanwhile, a new variant of COVID-19 was discovered again in India, when researchers from the National Institute of Virology, Pune, examined samples of British and Brazilian travelers traveling to India.

Launching Republic World, the variant named B.1.1.28.2 was discovered by 13 scientists, including the Director General of ICMR India Dr. Balram Bhargava. However, these findings have not been published and peer reviewed.

In a study conducted by injecting this new variant and variant B1 into two different groups of Syrian hamsters, then observations were made for seven days.

Thereafter, three hamsters were sacrificed on days 3, 5 and 7 each to study viral load, antibody response and pulmonary pathology. As a result, the new variant induced weight loss, viral replication in the respiratory tract and severe lung pathology in infected Syrian hamsters, compared to variant B1 infection.

Highlighting the more severe symptoms it causes, scientists suggest the importance of screening the COVID-19 vaccine, for efficacy against this variant. In addition, the researchers noted the importance of sequencing the viral genome.

"This will assist in the implementation of various control measures to curb the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 variants in the country, enabling a rapid assessment of their prevalence worldwide. With research underway to determine the potential neutralization of currently available COVID-19 vaccines, we still need to continue to follow non-pharmaceutical interventions such as the use of masks, physical distancing, hand hygiene, and avoiding public gatherings that will check for transmission. This new variant is for the most part," the study said.