New COVID-19 variant having more mutations than Omicron discovered in France

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French scientists have found a new COVID-19 variant B.1.640.2 or IHU which has even more mutations compared to Omicron.

Discovered in 12 patients in Marseilles, southern France, the new “atypical combination” variant traced to a Cameroon returnee has 46 mutations and 36 deletions, as per a published paper.

The paper was posted on December 29 and gained traction after US-based epidemiologist Eric Feigl-Ding posted a long thread explaining the threat on January 3. The new SARS-CoV-2 variant harbours both substitutions N501Y and E484K in the spike protein, which is the virus component used by prevalent vaccines to defend against diseases.

Notably, mutations in the new variant have caused 14 amino acid substitutes and nine amino acid deletions in the virus’ spike protein. 

In a series of tweets, Feigl-Ding noted that scientists had observed these cases showing the emergence of new SARS-CoV-2 variants from abroad are “unpredictable” and “exemplify the difficulty to control such introduction and subsequent spread”.

As per reports, B.1.640.2 has not been spotted in other countries or labelled a variant under investigation by the World Health Organization (WHO).

However, concern is rising and analyst Oliver Alexander in his Twitter thread noted that regional hospitalisations are climbing at a much faster rate than the national average in the region where B.1.640.2 was found.

“Daily ICU admissions are where things start to look worrying. Here the region is already over the previous highest peak and climbing … Current hospitalisations and current ICU hospitalisations are also quite a bit higher than the French average. Deaths also show a much steeper climb and are higher than the French average,” he noted.

Alexander added he was not convinced the difference is because of the new variant, but is down to the rate of vaccinations.

Feigl-Ding said that the PCR analysis of signals different from Omicron and Delta can be used to identify B.1.640.2 which can be a “shortcut … that’s good… shortcut tests faster than whole genome sequencing”.

He was also pragmatic that a new variant doesn’t automatically mean “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 noted.