India acknowledges emergence of new Delta variant

New mutant found in A.P., Maharashtra, Telangana and Karnataka

India on Tuesday formally acknowledged the occurrence of AY1, the coronavirus variant that is closely related to the prevailing Delta variant. AY1 or B.1.617.2 has a mutation called K147N that has been associated with the Beta variant, first identified in South Africa, and that is linked to high infectivity. “This was first identified in March in Europe but brought into the public domain only two days ago,” said V.K. Paul, Chairman, National Empowered Group on Vaccination in a press conference on Tuesday. “Yes, a new variant has been found. It's not yet a variant of concern, or one which has adverse consequences to humanity. We don’t know much about this yet and are studying it including the prevalence in India.” As The Hindu reported on Monday, five Indian labs have submitted data on this modified variant in May and June to GISAID, a global repository of coronavirus variants and Public Health England (PHE), a United Kingdom body, has said that of the 63 genomes in its repository as of June 7, six were from India. This doesn't mean that only six instances of this form of the virus exist in India. Evidence of the mutant have been found in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana and Karnataka.