ABSTRACT
The origin of COVID-19 pandemic, caused by SARS-CoV-2, was traced to Wuhan, China. Thereafter, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) evolved into various variants owing to genome-wide mutations, causing emergence of multiple variants, including Variant of Interest and Variant of Concern. Here, we discuss genomic architecture of SARS-CoV-2, as well as its multiple variantsalpha, beta, gamma, and delta, along with their biological properties, such as transmissibility, reduction in antibody-mediated neutralization, virulence, disease severity, vaccine effectiveness, and the prevalence across the India vis-a-vis world. Our data on VOC, pooled from the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data up to 31 October 2021, shows around 89% prevalence of delta VOC across various Indian States. Whereas alpha, beta, and gamma variants show 10.44%, 0.57%, and 0.11% prevalence, respectively. Compared with global scale, the reported Indian prevalence of alpha, beta, gamma, and delta are 0.40%, 0.63%, 0.04%, and 1.7%, respectively. Furthermore, prevalent vaccines of various natures show significantly reduced effectiveness against these VOCs, necessitating urgent need for development of effective prophylactic vaccines and potential therapy to contain the pandemic.
ABSTRACT
The origin of COVID-19 pandemic, caused by SARS-CoV-2, was traced to Wuhan, China. Thereafter, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) evolved into various variants owing to genome-wide mutations, causing emergence of multiple variants, including Variant of Interest and Variant of Concern. Here, we discuss genomic architecture of SARS-CoV-2, as well as its multiple variants-alpha, beta, gamma, and delta, along with their biological properties, such as transmissibility, reduction in antibody-mediated neutralization, virulence, disease severity, vaccine effectiveness, and the prevalence across the India vis-à-vis world. Our data on VOC, pooled from the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data up to 31 October 2021, shows around 89% prevalence of delta VOC across various Indian States. Whereas alpha, beta, and gamma variants show 10.44%, 0.57%, and 0.11% prevalence, respectively. Compared with global scale, the reported Indian prevalence of alpha, beta, gamma, and delta are 0.40%, 0.63%, 0.04%, and 1.7%, respectively. Furthermore, prevalent vaccines of various natures show significantly reduced effectiveness against these VOCs, necessitating urgent need for development of effective prophylactic vaccines and potential therapy to contain the pandemic. © ScienceIn Publishing.