Jahangeer Ganaie
Srinagar, May 7: Though the authorities have recently declared the presence of mutated Covid-19 in Kashmir division, the official data reveals that the samples that were collected for the test belong to November- December last year.
As per the official data accessed, the sample in which mutation was found was collected in Nov-Dec last year. However, its report from genome sequencing came just before 20 days.
As per the data, 70 samples collected in Jammu division have been found to have mutation.
The data reveals, the samples sent to reference laboratories were Nasopharyngeal and Oropharyngeal swabs. All swabs were positive for SARS-CoV-2 by real time Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (rt-RT-PCR).
As per the data of the 266 samples collected from SKIMS Soura (Group A = 231 under genome sequencing data of 5 percent and Group B = 35 genome sequencing data of travellers) sent from SKIMS Soura, only 123 samples (Group A 118 and Group B 5) had been sequenced.
Samples were collected in March-August 2020 (58 samples), November-December 2020 (60 samples), and Jan-Feb 2021 (Group B traveller samples). Of these 123 samples collected, only one sample (Group A) collected in Nov-Dec 2020 showed mutation N440K. None of the samples from travelers (5 samples) showed any mutations.
It is pertinent to mention here that the N440K mutation is one of the two mutations (N440K and E484Q) detected in Maharashtra, Kerala and Telangana.
Of 306 samples sent from GMC-Jammu, sequences from 288 samples had been generated. The samples were collected prior to Dec 2020 (72 samples), Jan 2021 (16 samples), Feb 2021 (90 samples), and March 2021 (128 samples). The residence of the patients from whom samples were collected included: Jammu (215), Udhampur (11), Poonch (6), Kathua (9), Srinagar/Kashmir (59), and command hospital (6 samples). Apart from one patient, none of the patients had a history of international travel.
Of the 288 samples, 70 samples had mutations. Single mutations were seen in 26 samples, two mutations in 13 samples, and multiple mutations in the remaining samples.
