With the start of the second COVID-19 wave in February, Kerala began sequencing samples to identify the variants in the state. “Three new variants have been found in the state from the samples collected prior to the elections. Two of these are the B.1.67 (double mutant) variant and the B.1.351 (South Africa) variant. These variants were found in samples collected from March 2021 but they were not found in samples collected prior to that. B.1.67 is an Indian variant that has been rampantly present in Maharashtra while B.1.351 is a South African variant,” Vinod Scaria, a scientist at the CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB), New Delhi, told TNM.
Kerala had tied up with CSIR-IGIB in November 2020 for genome sequencing to understand the mutation of the novel coronavirus. Experts say that it is normal for the coronavirus to mutate.
The district-wise sequencing of samples is still going on while a state-wise study was completed in 2020. The report of the…