Vietnam: first case of coronavirus variant B.1.617.2 found in Ho Chi Minh City
The Covid-19 research team of the Ho Chi Minh City Hospital for Tropical Diseases has just conducted rapid decoding of the genome of SARS-CoV-2 from patient 4514. This is a resident Covid-19 case, living in Thu Duc city, Ho Chi Minh City was recorded on May 18 and officially announced this morning by the Ministry of Health on May 19.
Dr. Nguyen Van Vinh Chau, Director of Ho Chi Minh City Hospital for Tropical Diseases – representative of the research team, said that the team used an RNA sample extracted from the oropharyngeal swab of patient 4514 on May 18, performed gene sequencing using Illumina MiSeq and MinION techniques, with Genious genome assembly software.
The results of identification by Pangolin software show that the obtained genome belongs to the B.1.617.2 variant. The results of mutation identification by COV-GLUE showed that the genome carried 6 typical aminoacid mutations (T19R, L452R, T478K, D614G, P681R, D950N) and a deletion mutation (156-158) on the protein region. spikes of the mutant B.1.617.2.
This leads to the conclusion: Patient 4514 is infected with a variant B.1.617.2 similar to the one causing epidemics in some places in the North.
Variant B.1.617.2 is one of three sub-branches of strain B.1.617 from India. According to TS-BS Nguyen Van Vinh Chau, this strain B.1.617.2 carries a double mutation of L452R and T478K. The T478K mutation is also expected to specifically affect the affinity of the spike protein for the ACE2 receptor and make it easier for the virus to rapidly enter cells.
Vietnam has been left relatively unscathed by the Covid-19 pandemic so far as can be seen below