Centre orders all social media sites to delete posts of "Indian Variant"; cites WHO report

Taking umbr to term 'Indian variant' of COVID-19, Ministry of Electronics and Information Techlogy (MEITY) on Friday, has issued a directive to all social media platforms to 'remove all content referring or implying to 'Indian variant' immediately. Centre has cited recent clarification issued by World Health Organisation (WHO) stating that B.1.617.2 variant found in India was t classified as 'Indian variant'. A day earlier, Singapore too directed social media giants Twitter and Facebook to carry correction tice to all end-users in Singapore about a 'Singapore variant' as it has w been classified as a sub-variant of B.1.617.2.

Centre orders social media to remove 'Indian variant' references

WHO: classification as 'Indian variant'

On May 12, Centre issued a statement pointing out that WHO has t classified deadly variant as an “Indian Variant”, but classified it as a 'variant of global concern'. Centre took offence to certain media reports terming it 'Indian variant' claiming se reports are without any basis, and unfounded. It also added that word “Indian” has t been used in 32-p WHO document. WHO South-East Asia too confirmed that 'WHO does t identify viruses with names of countries y are first reported from'.

WHO has classified B.1.617 variant of Coronavirus, first identified in India, as a variant of global concern. As of 11 May, over 4500 sequences have been uploaded to GISAID and assigned to B.1.617 from 44 countries in all six WHO regions, and WHO has received reports of detections from five additional countries. WHO stated that B.1.617 sublines appear to have higher rates of transmission, including observed rapid increases in prevalence in multiple countries.

It also said that variant had potential reduced effectiveness of Bamlanivimab, a moclonal antibody used for COVID-19 treatment, and potentially slightly reduced susceptibility to neutralisation antibodies. Viruses in B.1.617 line were first reported in India in October 2020 with a recent WHO risk assessment finding that resurgence and acceleration of COVID-19 transmission in India had several potential contributing factors including political mass garing, reduced adherance to social measures. Approximately 0.1% of positive samples in India have been sequenced and uploaded to GISAID to identify SARS-CoV-2 variants.

WHO has assured that all existing treatments, vaccines and diagstics continue to remain effective against  B.1.617 variant of Coronavirus.  Dr Roderico H Orfin, WHO's representative to India, said that re has been an increasing rate of detection of B.1.617 strain along with surge of COVID cases in India. However, he pointed out that relative contribution of B.1.617 variant in increase of caseload remains 'unclear'. At present, India has two vaccines - Covishield by SII and Covaxin by Bharat Biotech - in circulation, with Russia's Sputnik V being granted Emergency Use Authorization by DCGI.