New hard-to-detect strain of coronavirus found in France, here's what it means for India

Reuters File Photo

New Delhi: The coronavirus, which originated in China's Wuhan is constantly mutating and after new strains were detected in Britain, Brazil and South Africa now, a yet another new strain of the infection has been found.

This new strain has been found in the city of Brittany and alarmingly, it is not detectable by nasal swab test.

Zee News files a report on France's new COVID-19 strain.

The officials of the Healthy Department of France said that test reports of patients with new strain shows negative result even as the patients exhibited all symptoms of coronavirus.

When the symptoms were positive and the report was negative, the French health authorities did a genetic sampling of these patients and found that these people were infected with the coronavirus and that it was a new strain.

Several mutations have taken place in the spike protein of the coronavirus and has been found from genetic sequencing. As a result, it is not detectable even on the nasal swab. The genetic code of the coronavirus is usually detected during RT-PCR test by taking a sample from the patient's nose.

French health officials said a total of 76 cases were reported in Brittany on Monday, in which eight were found to be from this strain. In such a situation, people need not be afraid of this strain right now. 

The cases are increasing in France mainly due to UK strains, South Africa strains and Brazil strains.

Stephen Mullies, Director of Brittany Department of Health said, "There is no need to fear this new strain right now. V1, V2 and V3 strains from Britain, South Africa and Brazil are behind the rise in COVID-19 cases."

Zee News investigated if Indians should be wary of the new mutated strain found in France. Dr Prakhar Garg of Yatharth Hospital in Noida said, "In India, the coronavirus test is conducted by taking a swab from both the nose and the mouth while in France only nasal swabs are taken." 

Also, it has been noted that these mutated strains which have been affecting the world have not proved as effective in India. Depsite this there should be no laxity and wearing of masks, using sanitizers and maintaining social distancing rule has to be followed strictly to protect themselves and others.

More than 12 million cases of coronavirus has been reported worldwide. Over 27 lakh people have succumbed to the infection. 

While in India, over 1 crore people have been affected and more than 1.5 million people have died of this infection. 

Right now many countries including India, America, Brazil are witnessing a surge in COVID-19 cases. 

In the last 24 hours, more than 19,000 cases of coronavirus has been reported. In such a situation, after a new strain of coronavirus has been found people should strictly follow SMS (Social DISTANCING, Mask and Sanitizer) because as the an old saying goes "prevention is better than cure".