Thought of the Day - June 25 2021 - Delta, Delta, Delta

Following on the tail of the Delta (India, B.1.617.2) variant, which is poised to become the dominant strain around the world due to its higher transmissibility, as you may have seen in the press, it has a new family variant being discussed that may soon be classified as one of concern.

Unfortunately, we are saddled with the new WHO naming convention and so this new Delta variant is being called Delta Plus or Delta Prime for the time being until the WHO comes out with an extension to their naming convention. In short, scientifically it is B.1.617.2.1 (AY.1) meaning it was derived from the India variant but with a K417N mutation (meaning a spike protein has an amino acid change at position 417) akin to the South Africa variant (B.1.351) which the WHO calls Beta. In colloquial terms, it has also been referred to as the Nepal variant as this was the first country of known origin.

This new B.1.617.2 variant is actually not that new, it has probably been around since March. Thus it has already spread around the world. As of last week, over 200 COVID cases have been found across eleven countries around the world - Britain (41), India (40), Japan (15), Nepal (3), Poland (9), Portugal (22), Russia (1), Switzerland (18), Turkey (1), the United States (83) and also Canada (1) - caused by the B.1.617.2 variant. Symptoms appear to be much the same as other strains from the Delta family - headache, sore throat, runny nose, and fever.

The significance of this variant that it probably has the transmissibility of the India variant (about twice that of the original strain from China), the cause of the resurgence of cases in the UK, but also may prove to be more resistant to antibody treatments (like the South Africa variant).

Whether it will out-compete the original Delta only time will tell, but it does remind us that due to the more than ten million active COVID cases around the world the SARS-CoV-2 virus is still a-changing.

Cheers

Cliff