‘Double mutant’ COVID-19 variant, complacency worsened outbreak in India – PH envoy

FILE PHOTO: A patient with breathing problem is rushed to a hospital for treatment, amidst the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Ahmedabad, India, April 15, 2021. REUTERS/Amit Dave

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Ambassador to India said the pandemic in the second-most populous country in the world took a turn for the worse due to a concurrence of events: the national government becoming complacent and the emergence of a new, more transmissible variant of COVID-19.

“Ang nangyari nagkasabay-sabay eh. Naging kampante sila kasi bumaba ‘yung kaso mga November to December, tapos pumasok itong [variant] na ito, double mutant,” Philippine Ambassador to India Ramon Bagatsing Jr. said in an interview over ABS-CBN’s TeleRadyo.

(“What happened is that everything happened at the same time. They became complacent because the cases dropped around November to December, then the double mutant variant appeared.)

He explained that the entry of the “double mutant” variant meant faster transmission, this was on top of the fact that authorities lifted restrictions when new cases were running at about 10,000 a day in India from November to December, allowing for the resumption of big gatherings.

“Kung tayo maraming fiesta, mas marami ring fiesta dito,” Bagatsing said.

(If the Philippines have a lot of fiestas, India has much more.)

Aside from fiestas, political rallies have also acted as “super spreaders,” according to Bagatsing.

“The medical system here, the health care system here, has been extremely overwhelmed by all these developments,” he said.

“Near breakdown na talaga, near breakdown,” he further lamented.

In terms of vaccine rollout, Bagatsing said that out of its 1.5 billion population, 150 million people—which is around 10 percent of the total population—have already been vaccinated.

The ambassador said that he himself had already been vaccinated as well.

“They’re number one in vaccine development in the world, they say 60% of the vaccines come from India,” he said.

However, Bagatsing said the extreme surge of COVID-19 cases slowed down inoculation efforts because hospitals that served as vaccination outlets were overwhelmed with COVID patients.

The ambassador said India will start vaccinating the general public, ages 18 and above, starting May 1.

India is now facing its worst bout with COVID-19 after the “double mutant” variant hit the country recently, triggering the virus to spread like wildfire.

The “double mutant” variant, officially named B.1.617, is still being studied by experts.

The title “double mutant” came about after it was discovered that two of the same mutations found in two other variants of concern exist in the Indian variant.

However, this variant—like other variants—actually contains more than a dozen mutations. This one just happened to have two mutations that are also found in other “famous” variants around the world, the one in California, United States, and the other in South Africa and Brazil.

As of writing, total COVID-19 cases in India have crossed the 17 million mark, with more than 2.8 million active cases recorded and 195,123 deaths.

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