The double and triple mutant strains detected in India are one and the same variant of the coronavirus, and the available vaccines are effective on it, National Institute of Biomedical Genomics Director Soumitra Das said on Friday. Speaking at a webinar on ‘Genome Sequencing of SARS-CoV-19’, Das said double mutant and triple mutant terms are “colloquial” and both refer to the same variant — B.1.617 variant of the coronavirus.
“Double and triple mutants are one and the same. Double and triple mutants are over-lapping terms and have been used differentially in different context,” he said.
“Variants found in India are not really escaping our vaccinated sera,” Das said, suggesting that the available vaccines are effective on them.
