Emerging variants: Subtype B.1.617.2 was found in 1% of tests in January, 77% in April
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Data suggests that B.1.617.2 has a 15% growth rate faster than even B.1.1.117 (the UK Kent variant). The Kent variant was predominant in the surge in Punjab this year.
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One of the three subtypes of the B.1.617 Sars-Cov-2 virus is now fast emerging as the key driver of the current surge in India. Latest studies show the variant identified as B.1.617.2 as the sub-lineage spreading fast across India and other countries.
Three distinct subtypes of B.1.617 have been identified so far: The B.1.617.1 (in India, but declining), the B.1.617.2 and the B.1.617.3. Data suggests that B.1.617.2 has a 15% growth rate faster than even B.1.1.117 (the UK Kent variant). The Kent variant was predominant in the surge in Punjab this year.
Covid-19: C.D.C. Guidance Prompts Caution in Some States
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May 14, 2021, 1:13 a.m. ETMay 14, 2021, 1:13 a.m. ET
Since many states led by Republicans had already eased masking rules, reactions were more obvious in Democratic-led states. The U.S. began the world’s first mass inoculation effort in 12- to 15-year-olds, underscoring the widening gulf in global access to shots.
Here’s what you need to know:
University of Missouri students ordering in a restaurant last week. Masks will no longer be required indoors for the vaccinated.Credit.Jacob Moscovitch for The New York Times
“We have all longed for this moment,” Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a White House news conference on Thursday. “If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing the things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic.”
UPDATED: May 14, 2021 12:17 IST
The US had in March accused China of hampering WHO s investigations into the origin of the virus and demanded that Beijing be more transparent . (Photo: Getty)
Amid a growing call for an investigation of the origins of the novel coronavirus pandemic that has bruised and battered every country on the planet, 18 scientists in a letter have asked for a deeper inquiry into the source of the deadly pathogen. The scientists want an inquiry into whether the virus was an accidental leak due to human errors or if it originated naturally.
The letter, led by Jesse Bloom, who pursues the evolution of viruses at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in the US, was published in the journal Science. More investigation is still needed to determine the origin of the pandemic. Theories of accidental release from a lab and zoonotic spillover both remain viable, the letter states.
Covid-19 Wuhan lab leak theory must be taken seriously and the WHO has failed to make a balanced consideration of it, leading scientists say
The lab leak theory has to be considered until data-led probe proves it wrong, group of leading scientists said in a letter published today
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LONDON (Reuters) -The origin of the novel coronavirus is still unclear and the theory that it was caused by a laboratory leak needs to be taken seriously until there is a rigorous data-led investigation that proves it wrong, a group of leading scientists said. "More investigation is still needed to determine the origin of the pandemic," said the 18 scientists, including Ravindra Gupta, a clinical microbiologist at the University of Cambridge, and Jesse Bloom, who studies the evolution of viruses at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. "Theories of accidental release from a lab and zoonotic spillover both remain viable," the scientists including David Relman, professor of microbiology at Stanford, said in a letter to the journal Science.