Researchers have identified a characteristic feature in corona virus present in infected people in India. They named it Clade A3i and it has been found in 41 percent of the sequenced genomes in India.
CCMB tweeted, ‘The results show that a distinct cluster of virus population, uncharacterized thus far, which is prevalent in India – called the Clade A3i. This cluster seems to have originated from an outbreak in Feb 2020, and spread through India. This comprises of 41% of all SARS-CoV2 genomes from Indian samples, and 3.5% of global genomes submitted into public domain. ‘
The CCMB laboratory is under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). Rakesh Mishra, director of CCMB and co-author of this study, said that most of the samples in Telangana and Tamil Nadu have resembled this new cluster of virus, ie, Clade A3i.
Mishra said that most of the samples were from when the spread in India was in its early stages. There is some similarity in some samples in Delhi but there is no similarity in samples in Maharashtra and Gujarat. He said that genome sequencing of more samples should be done in the coming time so that more information can be found in this subject.