New Andhra strain N440K 15 times more infectious

  • A team of researchers from Hyderabad and Ghaziabad has found that, the mutant N440K of the novel coronavirus is 10 to 1,000 times more infectious than certain strains now in circulation.
  • The mutant N440K was first found in Andhra Pradesh’s Kurnool city.
  • It was first discovered by Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB).
  • The N440K was detected in December 2020, by genome sequencing by INSACOG.
  • The new variant has shorter incubation period (the number of days between when you're infected with something and when you might see symptoms) and the progress of the disease is much rapid. 
  • According to the researchers, the N440K variant belongs to the lineage of A2a strain. 

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