Covid-19: Maharashtra, Delhi, Punjab have 56 pc of national mutant burden

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 6

Maharashtra, Delhi and Punjab together account for more than half of the Covid virus mutation burden in India, shows genome sequencing data of the government.

Of the 3,532 variants of concern detected nationally by the Indian Genome Consortium, 1,982 are in the above three states with Maharashtra leading with 851 variants of concern followed by 612 in Delhi and 519 in Punjab.

Dominant mutant in Maharashtra is the B1617, better known as the double mutant which is now spreading fast across states while in Delhi and Punjab the majority dominance is of the B117 mutant called the UK variant.

Of the 519 variants of concern in Punjab, 516 are UK lineage strains while of Delhi’s 612 variants of concern, 482 are UK strains.

Apart from the the above three states mutant burden is high in Telangana (267 variants of concern), Karnataka (234 variants of concern) and Gujarat (164 variants of concern)

Sharing this data yesterday, National Centre for Disease Control director SK Singh said the double mutant was now on the rise across states and the UK variant was gradually declining.

“The current surge in cases seen over the last one and a half month in some states shows a correlation with the rise of the Indian double mutant variant. The UK variant is declining in proportion across the country in the last 1.5 months,” he said.