While the world is grappling with the highly infectious “variant of concern” Omicron, scientists in France have identified a new covid variant which has 46 mutations.

       Named IHU, the new B.1.640.2 variant has so far infected 12 people living in southeastern France. The first case has been linked to a person with a travel history to Cameroon, said the authors in a research paper published on medRxiv last Wednesday.

       In the analysis, the authors found “46 mutations” has not been spotted in other countries, nor has it been labelled a variant under investigation by the WHO.

       The genomes were obtained by next-generation sequencing. The authors of the paper claimed that the “index-case” was fully-vaccinated and tested positive for the covid test after returning from a three day trip to Cameroon.

       "Subsequent detection by qPCR of three mutations in the spike gene to screen for variants, as systematically performed in France in case of SARS-CoV-2 positivity, revealed an atypical combination with L452R-negativity, E484K-positivity, and E484Q-negativity… that did not correspond to the pattern of the Delta variant involved in almost all SARS-CoV-2 infections at that time," reported News.com.au, citing the paper.

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       Arguing that the emergence of the new variant emphasised the importance of “genomic surveillance”, the authors said their observations once again showed the “unpredictability of the emergence of new SARS-CoV-2 variants”.

       In a long Twitter thread, epidemiologist and a fellow at Federation of American Scientists, Eric Feigl-Ding said: “There are scores of new variants discovered all the time, but it does not necessarily mean they will be more dangerous. What makes a variant more well-known and dangerous is its ability to multiply because of the number of mutations it has in relation to the original virus.”

       “This is when it becomes a "variant of concern" - like Omicron, which is more contagious and more past immunity evasive. It remains to be seen in which category this new variant will fall,” he added.