• No case of MU variant found in India, keeping a close watch: Centre

    National
    No case of MU variant found in India, keeping a close watch: Centre

    New Delhi: The Union government cleared out that no cases of the 'MU' variant of coronavirus were detected in India so far from the 51,000 samples taken by the health department.






    Indian Council of Medical Research, Director Dr. Balram Bhargav stated, "Till now no 'MU' cases have been detected in India; we are constantly inspecting it."






    Recently, WHO has warned that the new MU variant shows signs of possible resistance to the vaccines.






    In a statement, World Health Organization (WHO) stated, "On the grounds of latest assessments, B.1.621 was categorized as a variant of Interest on August 30 and given the WHO label 'MU.'"






    "The MU variant has a constellation of mutations that indicate potential properties of immune escape. Preliminary data handed to the Virus Evolution Workling Group show a reduction in Neutralization capacity of convalescent and vaccines sera similar to that seen for the Beta variant, but this needs to be confirmed by further studies." added the statement.






    'MU' new coronavirus variant was first identified n Columbia in January. Moreover, the WHO has tagged the new variant as a 'Variant of Interest.'






    NITI Ayog member, Dr V.K. Paul stated, "Both government and health scientists are keeping track on the variant of interest. It is compulsory to have both doses of covid vaccine to fight against any covid variant."