‘IHU’ variant of Covid-19

When was IHU variant first discovered

The IHU variant has been reported just in France and not spotted in any other country or labelled a variant under investigation by WHO

It was first discovered in mid-November and is linked to travel to Cameroon in Africa

The variant has 46 mutations and 37 deletions in its genetic code, more than Omicron. Many of these affect the spike protein.

The B.1.640 variant is not new. It has been around for at least three months.

According to outbreak.info, an open-source database of Covid-19 resources and epidemiology data, B.1.640 was first detected on January 1, 2021

The B.1.640 cases have been detected in as many as 19 countries, outbreak.info further reported, including one from India.

The highest number of cases of the B.1.640 variant has been reported from France (287), followed by Congo (39), Germany (17) and the UK (16 )

Till now, only a dozen cases have been reported in France. No other country has detected any new cases of the new variant

And it’s not clear if B.1.640.2 is stronger or spreads faster than the other previously known strains of coronavirus.

Source ; HT/indian express