COVID 'Centaurus' Subvariant Found In India, Expert: Indonesia Needs To Collect Data

Director of Postgraduate Program at YARSI University, Prof. Tjandra Yoga Aditama. (ANTARA/HO-YARSI).

JAKARTA - Director of Postgraduate Program at YARSI University, Tjandra Yoga Aditama, reported the latest findings of the subvariant type BA.2.75 in India which some people call Centaurus.

"India we know as the country that first reported the Delta variant, which then almost destroyed the world of health," said Tjandra in a written statement received in Jakarta, Antara, Monday, July 11.

Tjandra who is also a Professor at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Indonesia (FKUI) said that currently the health authorities in India are reporting a new subvariance of BA.2.75. "Some parties refer to BA.2.75 as Centaurus, of course it is not an official name," he said.

The Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics (Insacog) as a scientific authority body in the form of a genomics consortium in India reported that in the local area the BA.2 variant was being dominated.

BA.4 and BA.5 in India only found less than 10 percent of samples from patients exposed to SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19. While BA.2.38 reached 30 percent of the sample examination results. "Indonesia also really needs to collect data towards this BA.2 and its derivatives, and the results are announced to the public," he said.

The former Director of Infectious Diseases of WHO Southeast Asia, said that so far there is no certainty about the character of BA.2.75 transmission, nor the severity of symptoms to the possibility of avoiding a person's immune system.

"Only since India, so now the case has spread to 10 countries, the spread is quite fast which reminds us like the previous Delta variant," he said.

Provisional data collected by Tjandra showed that there were at least eight additional BA.5 mutations in the Centaurus variant.

"Especially in terminal N, which can have the effect of avoiding the current immunity," he said.

Apart from BA.2.75 which is already under WHO monitoring, he said. there is also another subvariant that needs attention, namely BA.5.3.1 which is called Bad Ned because there is a mutation in N:E136D.

He said Shanghai health authorities said BA.5.2.1 was detected in Pudong, Shanghai on Sunday.

"All these developments make us need to be vigilant. We are heartened by President Jokowi's directive during Eid al-Adha that both indoors and outdoors wearing a mask is still a must," he said.