AP govt. clarifies on N440K virus in state, says no such thing found, urges not to scare people

Andhra Pradesh: Andhra Pradesh State Covid Command Control chairman KS Jawahar Reddy said that it is not good to scare the people in catastrophic situations. The state Department of Health has clarified about the N440K virus. He said there was no confirmation of the virus in the state and no research data was available.

"We send 250 samples to CPMB every month. CCMB is sending samples from AP, Telangana and Karnataka to Hyderabad for genetic sequencing tests. The N440K (B1.36) virus was detected in specimens from southern India in the months of June and July 2020, which effect was seen last December, January and February this year. But in March it completely disappeared, and now its impact is negligible," Jawahar Reddy said.

He further added that currently the impact of B1167 and B1 virus strains is greatest in South India, which was confirmed when examining the April data in positive cases. "It has been found to be a high infectious agent, prevalent in young people; the World Health Organization has also identified B.1,617 in epidemiology in India and did not mention about the N440K variant, "said Jawahar Reddy.

He questioned how ICMR and WHO could not recognise the variant that is being propagated. KS Jawahar Reddy said that the media should be responsible when broadcasting news on scientific topics.