Context: A unique “double mutant” coronavirus variant with a combination of mutations not seen anywhere else in the world has been found in India.

Details:

• It is still to be established if this has any role to play in increased infectivity or in making COVID-19 more severe.
• Genome sequencing of a section of virus samples by a consortium of 10 laboratories across the country, called the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics (INSACOG), revealed the presence of two mutations, E484Q and L452R
• While the two mutations have been individually identified in other variants of SARS-CoV-2 globally and have been associated with a reduction in vaccine efficacy, their combined effect and biological implications have not yet been understood.
• A government statement on Wednesday said 736 samples from across the country had so far been found to have UK lineage.
• 34 samples were found to have the “South African lineage”, and one had the “Brazilian lineage”.

Slow Genome sequencing:

• India has the second highest number of people infected with the coronavirus during the epidemic.
• But it has done very few genome sequences of the different variants in circulation.
• This includes the sequencing of 10,787 samples since the government set up INSACOG (Indian SARS-CoV2 Consortium on Genomics) in December specifically for this purpose.
• The stated objective of INSACOG is to sequence the samples from at least 5% of all the infected cases through a network of ten laboratories.The 19,092 samples that have sequenced till now form just 0.16% of that number.

Why it’s been slow:

• One of the major reasons for the slow pace of genome sequencing has been a lack of funds. So far, no money has been allocated for INSACOG, although officials said approval for funds was now expected any day.
• The laboratories have been using money from their own annual budgets to do the sequencing work. The cost is mainly of the chemical reagents that are required in the process.
• States have not been proactively sending their samples to the laboratories for sequencing.

https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/double-mutant-virus-variant-found/article34156305.ece

https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/coronavirus-samples-uk-link-punjab-covid-second-wave-7243733/

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