Bangladeshi scientists had identified a new variant of Sars-Cov-2 in the first week of November that is nearly similar to a new variant found in the United Kingdom a week later.
Further mutation of the variant (VUI 202012/01) created havoc in London and Southern Britain accounting for more than half of the infection among its residents.
Bangladeshi scientists at the genomic research laboratory of Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR) said the knowledge they have gathered till now indicates it is natural for the virus to continue mutation.
But the variant found in Bangladesh seems not to be as contagious as the UK variant, they said.
When BCSIR carried out genome sequencing on several samples early November, they found a new variant. A week later the UK also identified a nearly similar variant, said BCSIR Principal Scientific Officer Dr Md Salim Khan.
“Before us, the virus was identified in Peru and Russia only. Later it was found in the UK and a nearly similar variant was found in New Zealand later on,” he added.
When the UK identified the variant to be very contagious, the scientists looked into the similarity from the protein sequences uploaded to the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID), Dr Salim said.
Some 56,414 samples of the genome of the variant were stored at GISAID till December 21.
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The similarity between the two variants is the mutation in spike protein. The UK variant was P681H while the variant found in Bangladesh was P681R. Another nearly similar mutation was found with P1118, the researcher explained.
After almost 15 days, the UK identified a more contiguous mutation named as B.1.1.7, the lineage of this virus which is later found to be transmissible at 70% higher rate than that of its previous variant.
Dr Salim said: “We are hoping that the nearly similar variant found at our lab is not as much contiguous as we do not have any surge of Covid-19 cases yet after almost 2.5 months since the collection of the samples of the variant.”
According to Dr Salim, BCSIR have already contacted the National Institute of Laboratory Medicine Referral Centre to find out the address of the people from whom the samples were collected in October.
"However, we are not sure if the present mutation of the virus in Bangladesh is as infectious as the UK variant. Only after completing the genome sequencing at our lab, we will understand the transmissibility of the newly-mutated virus,” he added.
UK major source of Covid-19 in Bangladesh
According to the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), travellers from the UK have been a major source of virus transmission to Bangladesh.
The UK on Tuesday reported a record number of new infections as a mutated variant of the coronavirus caused the number of cases and hospital admissions to soar.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the UK strain has also been detected in small numbers in Australia, Denmark, and the Netherlands. Another variant with similar genetic mutations has been linked to widespread transmission in South Africa.
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Roughly 40 countries shut their borders to people travelling from Britain or South Africa to stop further spread.
In the wake of this development, Health Minister Zahid Maleque on Wednesday said that all possible measures were being taken so that the new variant of coronavirus would not enter the country.
He also announced that passengers arriving from the UK would be institutionally quarantined for seven days when it is usually three days for passengers from other countries.
The minister also said that passengers from the UK would be provided with separate lines and counters for immigration as “Bangladesh doesn’t want a new strain of the pathogen to spread in the country.”
