The sub-lineages of Delta variant of the coronavirus – AY.1 and AY.2 – are not likely to be more transmissible than the Delta strain itsel...
The sub-lineages of Delta variant of the coronavirus – AY.1 and AY.2 – are not likely to be more transmissible than the Delta strain itself, said the Indian Sars-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium, or INSACOG. The body is a consortium of 10 laboratories that conducts genome sequencing of Covid-19 infections.
“They [AY.1 and AY.2] also continue to be below 1% in available sequences from June in India,” INSACOG said in a bulletin. The AY.1 sub-lineage is commonly known as the Delta plus variant.
INSACOG added that there was also no indication that the cases of the sub-lineages were rising in four clusters in Madhya Pradesh’s Bhopal, Chennai in Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri and Jalgaon.
The bulletin said the cases of two sub-lineages were declining globally with almost no infections recorded in the last week of June in either the United Kingdom and the United States – the two countries where the mutations were most frequently seen.
The consortium also said that a new sub-lineage of the Delta variant, AY.3, has been identified. The AY.3 is characterised by another mutation, K417N, which is also found in the Beta variant, the bulletin said.
“It [AY.3] is primarily seen in the US with single reclassified cases in UK and India,” it said. “There are...
