Lineages with #N440K are NOT the dominant ones in the second wave of #Covid19inIndia. While N440K was a indeed mutation of concern in South India during and after the first wave, current data shows that it is essentially replaced by new VoCs such as #B1617 and #B117 When comparing the data from MH, in MH we can see that the increase in B.1.617 is seen in Feb rather than Mar 2021, and again we observe a reduction in proportion of lineages with N440K.

So much misinformation and confusion about the circulating #SARSCoV2 variants in India. Leaving aside that the names are scientifically inaccurate, #B1618 ("Bengal variant") is NOT the #tripleMutant. I will try to summarize the basics in this thread.

(1/n) B.1.617: characterized by more than 15 mutations, it got dubbed the "double mutant" because of two spike mutations, L452R and E484Q, which were mutations of concern because of their immune escape properties, and possible high infectivity.

https://twitter.com/vinodscaria/status/1380710693452738563?s=20

(2/n)

Our updated analysis on #SARSCoV2 clades in India, now peer-reviewed and published in OFID by @OxUniPress. In collaboration with @vinodscaria @IGIBSocial. Congratulations to the entire team.
doi.org/10.1093/ofid/o…
#Genomics #IndiaFightsCOVID19 I’ve never done one of these before, but I’m gonna make a thread of tweets explaining the key findings, and more importantly what our paper doesn’t show. 1/n