Covid-19 new variant ‘IHU’: A new coronavirus variant called 'IHU' has recently emerged in France amid the rapid surge of Omicron cases across the world.

Key Points:

• The discovery of the variant, dubbed B.1.640.2, was announced in a paper posted on medRxiv.
• The B.1.640.2 variant was discovered at the institute IHU Mediterranee Infection.
• Researchers believe that it contains 46 mutations.
• This has more mutations than the Omicron variant of COVID-19.
• The new variant has been associated with the African country Cameroon.
• France has reported at least 12 cases of this variant.
• This new variant can be a major threat.
• However, the cases have not been reported so far in countries other than France and are not labeled as ‘variant under investigation’ by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Identification of this new variant:

• The variant can be identified using careful PCR analysis of signals that are different from Delta and Omicron.

Currently, Omicron is the dominant coronavirus variant in France and other European countries like the United Kingdom and Portugal with surging case numbers over the past few days.

Note:

Scores of new variants are discovered all the time, but it does not necessarily mean they will be more dangerous.

What makes a variant more well-known and dangerous is its ability to multiply because of the number of mutations it has in relation to the original virus.''