NEW DELHI: Scientists at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) have found a different variant of SARS-CoV-2 in southern parts of India. Rakesh Mishra, Director, CCMB, said that the variant, N440K seems to be milder than the existing one and the institute is moving forward with the research on it to determine its prevalence in the country.
Mishra informed that the variant named N440K found in south India is not a new variant. He said that this same variant was there in September and October last year as well, only it was present in very small number. But according to him, this recently found variant is a little different than the N440K variant found before, and is milder as compared to the previous one. He said, “Now it looks like it is getting a much bigger proportion.” He also added that there are no issues of additional symptoms with N440K.
Mishra assured and said that the CCMB did not find any increase in number of cases in relation to the variant.