E-Paper
Covid-19's Delta continues to be main 'variant of concern', others negligible: INSACOG
INSACOG is a consortium of 28 national laboratories and was set up in December 2020 to monitor the genomic variations in Sars-CoV-2, the Covid-19 causing virus.
The Indian Sars-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) on Thursday emphasised that Delta variant of coronavirus infection (Covid-19) continues to be the main variant of concern in India. The consortium also said that other variants of interest or concern are now negligible in sequencing data from India, reported news agency PTI.
"Delta, including B.1.617.2 (AY) and AY.x sublineages, continues to be the main VOC globally. As per the latest WHO update, Delta has outcompeted other variants in most countries and there is now declining prevalence of other variants among SARS-CoV-2 sequences submitted to publicly available datasets or reported to WHO," the INSACOG said, underlining there is no change in the global scenario as well.
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INSACOG is a consortium of 28 national laboratories and was set up in December 2020 to monitor the genomic variations in Sars-CoV-2, the Covid-19 causing virus. It functions under the Union ministry of health and family welfare.
The consortium added Delta (B.1.617.2 and AY.x) continues to be the main variant of concern (VOC). "No new VOI or VOC are noted and other VOC and VOI other than Delta are now negligible in sequencing data from India," it said.
The first cases of the Delta variant first came to light in India in October last year. The variant is also generally blamed for the explosive rise in Covid-19 cases across the country, during the second wave of the pandemic in April and May, when the cases peaked at over 3,00,000/daily.
Meanwhile, India reported 13,091 fresh Covid-19 infections on Thursday, 14.17% higher than Wednesday when the country recorded 11,466 cases in a span of 24 hours. The fresh cases took the cumulative number of total infections to 3,44,01,670, the health ministry figures showed.
At least 340 people succumbed to the viral disease in the past 24 hours, taking the death toll to 462,189. The active Covid-19 cases in India now stand at 138,556, the lowest in the past 266 days, the health ministry further said.
