A UK mutant and a double mutant strain of the Coronavirus have been found among Covid patients in Jharkhand’s Ranchi and East Singhbhum districts, the Regional Genome Sequencing Laboratory (RGSL) at Bhubaneshwar-based Institute of Life Sciences (ILS) has confirmed.

The Jharkhand government had sent at least 52 Covid positive samples to Bhubaneshwar last week for genome sequencing, and the test reports confirmed that at least nine of these samples were of the UK mutant while four were the double mutant strain, the government stated in a press communique released on Wednesday afternoon.

As per data shared by the state government, at least eight of the nine UK mutant samples were from Ranchi and the remaining one was from East Singhbhum. Among the four double mutant strains, three were from Ranchi and one from East Singhbhum.

At a time when the state is already battling the worst wave of Covid-19 cases, the presence of mutant strains of the virus has rung the alarm bell for the health department. The mutant strains of the virus are said to have higher transmissibility and are also likely to evade the immune response of the body developed after exposure to the unmutated Covid-19 virus or vaccination.

While the UK strain of the virus was first found in European countries, the double mutant variant of the Covid-19 virus first emerged in India and has spread to other countries like the USA, Germany and UK.

The presence of mutated virus strains in Ranchi and East Singhbhum could be one of the reasons for the sudden spike in Covid cases and fatalities, say experts. “The new mutated strains of the virus have a higher transmissibility, which could be one of the reasons for the spike in cases lately in Jharkhand,” said Dr Ajay Kumar Singh, the state co-ordinator of Indian Medical Association (IMA).

Ranchi and East Singhbhum have reported more than 50 per cent of the fresh Covid cases that surfaced in Jharkhand in April – a trend that could be attributed to mutation in the virus. As per government data, Ranchi alone has reported 8,384 of the 19,703 Covid cases that surfaced in Jharkhand since April 1. East Singhbhum has reported 2,798 of the fresh cases this month.

Health officials said that the Covid samples sent for genome sequencing to Bhubaneshwar were stored at – 80 degree Celsius and had CT value of less than 25. Of the 52 samples from Jharkhand, 39 were selected for whole genome sequencing.

Genomic sequencing is a testing process to map the entire genetic code of an organism. which in this case, is the virus.