Delta plus variant, from the data updated to 21 October, 93 sequences were recorded in Italy (source: Gisaid platform). These are the most recent numbers for this sub-lineage of the Delta variant of Sars-CoV-2 (AY.4.2), which has become a ‘special observed’ in Gb: here on the same date 15.201 sequences of AY.4.2 were deposited, that is 93.8% of the total of those registered in Europe, which in turn account for 99% of the total world. To show them today was Silvio Brusaferro, president of the Higher Institute of Health (Iss), during his speech at the national conference of the SSP Foundation (School of Public Health) ‘The pandemic seen through the eyes of …’, organized in Venice at the Great School of St. John the Evangelist.
Among the various surveillance systems, explained Brusaferro, “we also have variant monitoring. We have seen how Sars-CoV-2 is evolving. In the beginning we started with a totally new virus that we have surveyed and evaluated, and then progressively we we had to compare with its variants. Competitive variants, which overlapped and today characterize the epidemiological picture. If at the beginning of the year we had the “dominant” Alpha variant, today we are with the Delta and we are evaluating possible sub-variants of the Delta. situation in constant evolution “.
And as for Delta’s new sub-lineage, the potential effects of its two characterizing mutations on viral properties are currently under study, according to when Brusaferro showed it in his paper. The maps on the variants are combined with those on the cases and from this, explained the president Iss, “we see how the sub-variant AY.4.2 impacts” in Italy “with respect to all the sequencing at a global level”. The latest data show precisely 93 sequences for the Peninsula. There were 86 according to the numbers updated to 19 October, made known by Brusaferro himself last Friday during the usual press point on the Covid monitoring of the control room.