ISSN: 0973-7510
E-ISSN: 2581-690X
, Satinder Kaur, Karashdeep Kaur, Ramanpreet Kaur, Jaspreet Kaur Boparai, Ritika Ghai, Tanveer Kaur, Amritpal Kaur, Jaspreet Kaur, Kajal Verma, Palika Sharma, Gagandeep Singh, Sweety, Vikram Thakur, Kuljeet Kaur, Kulwinder Singh, Savita Rani, Paramjeet Kaur, Sukhvir Kaur, Suman, Navdeep Kaur, Naina Rai, Dhavni Singla, Akshdeep Singh, Balwant Singh, Sukhpal Singh and Harbhajan SinghSARS-CoV-2 variants rapid emergence has posed critical challenge of higher transmission and immune escape causing serious threats to control the pandemic. The present study was carried out in confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2 patients to elucidate the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 variant strain. We performed RT-PCR using extracted RNA from the nasopharyngeal swabs of suspected Covid-19 patients. Confirmed positive cases with CT<25 were subjected to whole-genome sequencing to track the prevalence of the virus in the Malwa region of Punjab. The presence of B.1, B.1.1.7, B.1.351, B.1.617.1, B.1.617.2, AY.1 and other unidentified variants of SARS-CoV-2 was found in the studied population. Among all the variants, B.1.1.7 (UK variant) and B.1.617.2 (delta-Indian variant) was found to be the most dominant variant in the population and was found majorly in Patiala followed by Ludhiana, SBS Nagar, Mansa and Sangrur. In addition to this, sequencing results also observed that the dominant trait was more prevalent in male population and age group 21-40 years. The B.1.1.7 and B.1.617.2 variant of SARS-CoV-2 is replacing the wild type (Wuhan Strain) and emerging as the dominant variant in Punjab.
SARS-CoV-2, RT-PCR, whole genome sequencing, UK variant, Delta variant, Punjab
© The Author(s) 2021. Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License which permits unrestricted use, sharing, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.