Scientists have made a big claim regarding the threat posed by the rise of the new COVID-19 variant, AY.4, across the country.
Amid the rising cases of the new COVID-19 variant in parts of India, many people are concerned about the rise of the third wave of the pandemic, and the severity of the new variant. Answering these questions, scientists have made a big claim in this regard.
Rakesh Mishra, former director of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), has said on Monday that there is no evidence to suggest that AY.4, a sub-lineage of the Delta variant of the COVID-19, has a higher infectivity rate than Delta, and it is not a new variant.
Chief Medical and Health Officer (CMHO) of the state B S Saitya, as per media reports, said that six people in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore have been infected with the AY.4 lineage. He further added that all six people were fully vaccinated and had recovered from the infection.
Mishra, while talking to PTI, said, “There is no evidence or observation to suggest that there are more vaccine breakthrough or re-infections or more infectivity due to AY.4. At the moment, it does not look like it.” He stated that AY.4 is not a variant, but a sub-lineage of the Delta variant of COVID-19, which drove the second wave of the pandemic in India.
Mishra, who is now the director of the Tata Institute for Genetics and Society in Bengaluru, has said that observing all the COVID-19 protocols is still very essential for everyone as the virus is yet to reach the pandemic stage once again.
INSACOG, a genome-sequencing consortium, said in its recent bulletin, “Recent relative expansion of the AY.4 lineage, compared to B.1.617.2, in INSACOG data should be seen in the light of global evidence regarding no substantial difference between the Delta lineages so far.”
Another bulletin of the consortium has mentioned that the Delta variant and its sub-lineages continue to be the main Variants of Concern in India, however, the matter regarding AY.4 continues to be monitored and correlated clinically.
(With agency inputs)
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 "As fear of new AY.4 variant of COVID-19 rises, scientist makes BIG claim")
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