Indian Health Minister Mandavia said at a press conference on October 26th local time that the Indian Medical Research Council and the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are paying close attention to and studying the Covid-19 Delta mutant AY.4, which appeared in India, in order to prevent it from spreading further in India.
According to Indian media reports, recently, 7 cases and 6 cases of AY.4 infection of Delta mutant were found in Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh in southern India, respectively. At present, this variant still appears in Kerala and Maharashtra in India.
According to an official from the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention of India, preliminary investigation shows that the emergence of AY.4, a sub-variant of Delta mutant strain, has not increased the COVID-19 infection rate in India. At present, there is no evidence that the secondary variant AY.4 is more deadly than the earlier version of the Delta mutant strain first discovered in India. However, medical experts warned that India, with a population of 1.3 billion, could not withstand the spread of the virus, and the secondary variant AY.4 might lead to further mutation in Covid-19, which would have disastrous effects.
At present, AY.4, the second variant of Delta mutant strain, is the most common in the world, and it is at the highest level in Britain. In the United States, the distribution of the secondary variety AY.4 is the same as that of other secondary varieties. (Reporter Wang Jianbing, General Desk)