Two India-returnees carried the Indian variant

Indian coronavirus variant has been found in two people in Bangladesh. Both of them are male and had returned from India recently. The present location of the two could not be known.

The information of detecting the Indian variant was published on the website of Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID) of Germany on Friday.

According to GISAID website data, one of the two men found with the Indian variant is 41 years old and he lives in the Dhaka cantonment area. He did not take the vaccine and was infected while travelling to India. Institute for Developing Health Science and Health Initiative (IDHSH) collected his sample.

The second detected person lives in Khulna. He is 23. It could not be confirmed if he took the Covid vaccine.

GISAID said they do not have the information on the whereabouts of the two persons.

Citing GISAID, scientist of Child Health Research Foundation (CHRF) Syed Muqtadir Al Sium told Prothom Alo that the Indian Covid variant B.1.617.2 has been detected in Bangladesh.

He said the samples were collected on 28 and 29 April.

Microbiologist Senjuti Saha is conducting the genome sequencing of coronavirus in Bangladesh.

“The variant did not show the E484Q mutation that is linked to higher infection rates. Probably the available Covid-19 vaccine would be effective against the variant,” Senjuti told Prothom Alo.

GSAID earlier detected variants from Nigeria, South Africa and the UK.

Indian variant has been detected in at least 17 countries of the world. This variant is supposed to be more lethal.

India is seeing the second wave of coronavirus since last February. The country is reporting record number of cases and casualties of late.