No cases of new variant C.1.2 found in India yet, says Health Ministry

A new study has revealed that the new variant C.1.2 could be more transmissible and evade protection provided by vaccines. The scientists from National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) and the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform (KRISP) in South Africa said the potential variant of interest was first detected in the country in May this year. The Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology has been put on alert in this regard for detection’.

The WHO has said that to date there are 100 sequences of C.1.2. reported globally; from the earliest report in May from South Africa and currently it does not appear to be ‘increasing in circulation’. The scientists in the study said that this variant has been found in China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mauritius, the UK, New Zealand, Portugal and Switzerland as of August 13. The scientists found a consistent increase in number of C.1.2 genomes in South Africa each month.