Genomic characterization and epidemiology of an emerging SARS-CoV-2 variant in Delhi, India.
| Title | Genomic characterization and epidemiology of an emerging SARS-CoV-2 variant in Delhi, India. |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2021 |
| Authors | Dhar MS, Marwal R, Vs R, Ponnusamy K, Jolly B, Bhoyar RC, Sardana V, Naushin S, Rophina M, Mellan TA, Mishra S, Whittaker C, Fatihi S, Datta M, Singh P, Sharma U, Ujjainiya R, Bhatheja N, Divakar MKumar, Singh MK, Imran M, Senthivel V, Maurya R, Jha N, Mehta P, A V, Sharma P, Vr A, Chaudhary U, Soni N, Thukral L, Flaxman S, Bhatt S, Pandey R, Dash D, Faruq M, Lall H, Gogia H, Madan P, Kulkarni S, Chauhan H, Sengupta S, Kabra S, Gupta RK, Singh SK, Agrawal A, Rakshit P, Nandicoori V, Tallapaka KBharadwaj, Sowpati DTej, Thangaraj K, Bashyam MDharan, Dalal A, Sivasubbu S, Scaria V, Parida A, Raghav SK, Prasad P, Sarin A, Mayor S, Ramakrishnan U, Palakodeti D, Seshasayee ASai Narain, Bhat M, Shouche Y, Pillai A, Dikid T, Das S, Maitra A, Chinnaswamy S, Biswas NKumar, Desai ASudhir, Pattabiraman C, Manjunatha MV, Mani RS, Udupi GArunachal, Abraham P, Atul PVarsha, Cherian SS |
| Corporate Authors | Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium(INSACOG)‡ |
| Journal | Science |
| Pagination | eabj9932 |
| Date Published | 2021 Oct 14 |
| ISSN | 1095-9203 |
| Abstract | Delhi, the national capital of India, has experienced multiple SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks in 2020 and reached population seropositivity of over 50% by 2021. During April 2021, the city became overwhelmed by COVID-19 cases and fatalities, as a new variant B.1.617.2 (Delta) replaced B.1.1.7 (Alpha). A Bayesian model explains the growth advantage of Delta through a combination of increased transmissibility and reduced sensitivity to immune responses generated against earlier variants (median estimates; ×1.5-fold, 20% reduction). Seropositivity of an employee and family cohort increased from 42% to 87.5% between March and July 2021, with 27% reinfections, as judged by increased antibody concentration after a previous decline. The likely high transmissibility and partial evasion of immunity by the Delta variant contributed to an overwhelming surge in Delhi. |
| DOI | 10.1126/science.abj9932 |
| Alternate Journal | Science |
| PubMed ID | 34648303 |