Jakarta, CNN Indonesia –
Australian Griffith University epidemiologist Dicky Budiman assessed that the E484Q and L452R dual mutations found in India have the potential for re-infection in Covid-19 survivors who are already infected.
“This double mutation is of course the potential for re-infection. People who have been infected or are Covid survivors can be re-infected,” said Dicky to CNNIndonesia.com, Thursday (25/3).
Furthermore, he said that if the oldest survivors came back because of the mutation of the virus, he considered this could affect the strategy of heard immunity in handling the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to him, the E484Q mutation was also found in the United States, while the pure L452R virus mutation was found in India. However, according to him, these two strains have been found since December 2020 in genome sequencing carried out by local authorities.
However, according to him, at this time he had to wait for the development of research data conducted by the Indian health authorities regarding the mutation of the dual virus, because the data still needed to be studied.
“In general, this is news that should make us more alert,” he concluded.
He hopes that with the mutation findings, the Indonesian government will strengthen the entrance to the border both by sea and especially in the air. This also goes hand in hand with strategies for testing, isolation, quarantine, genomic surveillance and accelerating vaccination programs.
Previously, India detected a double mutated variant of the corona virus in 206 samples in Maharashtra. The state is the region hardest hit by the corona virus.
Director of India’s National Center for Disease Control, Sujeet Kumar Singh on Wednesday (24/3) said a new variant was also detected in nine samples in the capital New Delhi.
About 20 percent of the samples containing the new variant in Maharashtra were found in the city of Nagpur, a major commercial and logistics hub.
Epidemiologist Ramanan Laxminarayan said that the term double mutation refers to a new variant that has the characteristics of the two variants that have been identified.
(can/DAL)
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