Per official sources, about 4 people have tested positive with the South African variant (B.1.351 variant) of the virus, and one has tested positive with the Brazil variant (B.1.1.28.1 or P.1 variant).<\/p>\n
An analysis of cases globally has shown that the newer mutations are more contagious, infectious, and may even bring more symptoms than we previously know.<\/p>\n
All you need to know about the pernicious COVID strains, and their symptoms:<\/strong><\/p>\n It is believed that the South African and Brazilian variants are more contagious than previously thought. It is yet to be proved of disease and mortality rates.\u00a0 Until now, the UK variant of coronavirus is believed to be the deadliest with a higher infection and mortality rate.\u00a0\u00a0Experts believe that the South African and Brazilian strain could be at the same level as the UK one.\u00a0 Per medical sources, the three variants carry the same genetic code, E484K.\u00a0 This enables the virus to bypass the immune system in a human body, instantly leading to invasion and infection.<\/p>\n The South African strain is named 501.V2, and the Brazilian strain is named P.1. These strains transmit easily and quickly invade the lungs of an infected person. The South African variant is noted to transmit very fast and affect the younger population more. \u00a0Tests are still being carried out to determine if this variant is deadlier.<\/p>\n Pune-based National Institute of Virology by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is testing the efficacy of vaccines against the new strains of SARS-CoV-2 originating from Brazil and South Africa. The institute will be testing the two vaccines\u2014Covishield and Covaxin\u2014against the new mutations.<\/p>\n Dr. Samiran Panda, head of ICMR\u2019s epidemiology and communicable diseases division, told The Times of India: \u201cSerum samples drawn from those who have received the vaccine in India will be used in the lab to test if they can neutralize the two variants that recently entered India.\u201d<\/p>\n On hypothetical analysis, it is said that Covaxin may produce better results against the two strains, as it can ensure protection against the whole virus, whereas Covishield vaccine works in a system to target only one protein of the virus.<\/p>\n Indian medical researchers are in the process of testing vaccines against the UK variant, which has infected nearly 187 people across India.\u00a0 So far, initial results of both Covishield and Covaxin have shown positive results in tackling the UK variant of the coronavirus.<\/p>\n India’s\u00a0 Cases<\/strong><\/p>\n In India, in the last 2 months, a total of 192 positive cases of the new variants of mutated SARS-CoV-2 have been detected.\u00a0 In the meantime, the South African mutation has spread to 44 countries, and the Brazilian one to 15 countries.<\/p>\n In India, in the last 24 hours, there have been +14,199 new infections with +114 news deaths taking its total cases to 10,976,388 \u00a0and total death cases to 156,237.<\/p>\n