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The B.1.640.2 variant has been linked to travel to African country Cameroon

As the world grapples with the highly mutated Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, scientists have identified a new strain of the COVID-19 causing virus in Southern France.

Known as ‘IHU’, the B.1.640.2 variant has been reported by researchers at institute IHU Mediterranee Infection in at least 12 cases, and has been linked to travel to African country Cameroon.

However, the researchers noted that it is too early to speculate on how this variant behaves as far as infection and protection from vaccines is concerned.

The yet-to-be peer-reviewed study, posted on the preprint repository MedRxiv on December 29, revealed that IHU has 46 mutations and 37 deletions resulting in 30 amino acid substitutions and 12 deletions.

Amino acids are molecules that combine to form proteins, and both are the building blocks of life.

Fourteen amino acid substitutions, including N501Y and E484K, and nine deletions are located in the spike protein.

Most currently used vaccines are targeted at the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, which the virus uses to enter and infect the cells.

N501Y and E484K mutations were earlier also found in Beta, Gamma, Theta and Omicron variants.

“The mutation set and phylogenetic position of the genomes obtained here indicate based on our previous definition a new variant we named IHU,” the authors of the study said.

“These data are another example of the unpredictability of the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants, and of their introduction in a given geographical area from abroad,” they added.

The B.1.640.2 has not been identified in other countries so far or labelled a variant under investigation by the World Health Organization (WHO).

According to the researchers, the index (first) case was an adult diagnosed positive by RTPCR performed in a laboratory on a nasopharyngeal sample collected in mid-November last year.

Epidemiologist Eric Feigl-Ding posted a long Twitter thread in which he said that new variants keep emerging 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,” Feigl-Ding tweeted on Tuesday.

“This is when it becomes a “variant of concern” – like Omicron, which is more contagious and more past immunity evasive. It remains to be seen in which category this new variant will fall,” he said.

Many countries are currently experiencing a spike in COVID-19 cases driven by the Omicron variant which was first identified in South Africa and Botswana in November last year.

Since then, the variant of concern has spread to over 100 countries.

In India, a total of 1,892 cases of Omicron variant have been detected across 23 states and Union Territories so far.

With inputs from The Hindu

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Kashmir Today staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The cabin surrounding the Prophet’s Chamber has four doors:

‎ 1. The Southern Gate: It is called the Tauba Gate.
‎ 2. The Northern Gate: It is called the Tahajjud Gate.
‎ 3. The Eastern Gate: It is called the Fatima Gate.
‎ 4. The Western Gate: It is called the Prophet’s Gate and is known as the Gate of Delegations.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will suspend Umrah trips to Saudi Arabia from Jan 8 as part of efforts to curb the spread of the COVID-19 Omicron variant, health minister of Malaysia Khairy Jamaluddin announced on Saturday (Jan 1).

The decision was made as authorities are concerned about people breaching home quarantine after returning from the pilgrimage.

“Most pilgrims who returned from performing the umrah applied to undergo their seven-day quarantine at home. However, when there was non-compliance with the stipulated standard operating procedure, positive COVID-19 cases among umrah pilgrims caused the infection to spread among family members,” said Mr Khairy at a press conference.

“Due to non-compliance with the home quarantine procedures, family members living in the same house or neighbours and relatives who come visiting are exposed to COVID-19 infection.”

Bookings for new umrah flight tickets were suspended on Saturday, he said.

The health minister added that pilgrims returning to Malaysia from Jan 3 will have to quarantine at designated facilities.

“Pilgrims leaving for the Holy Land (Mecca) between Jan 1 and 7 will be allowed to proceed with their journey. However, they need to undergo quarantine at quarantine stations or hotels identified by NADMA (national disaster management agency) on their return to Malaysia,” he told reporters.

Originally Published by CNA

Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that rising corruption and sex crimes were the two main evils confronting the Muslim world.

He said this during an interactive dialogue on ‘Riyasat-i-Madina: Islam, Society and Ethical Revival’ with top Muslim scholars from the world on Sunday, which was organised by the recently set up National Rehmatul-lil-Aalameen Authority (NRAA).

Khan in October formed the NRAA for researching how best to disseminate lessons from the life of the Prophet to the masses.

The scholars presented their views on how the youth could be protected from the invasion of social media on their faith and religious and ethical values.

“There are two sorts of crimes in the society, one is corruption and the other is sex crime. Sex crime has risen sharply in our society, i.e. rape and child abuse and only one per cent of this is reported,” Khan said.

“The other 99 per cent, I believe, society has to fight it. The same is the case with corruption… Society has to make corruption unacceptable. Unfor¬tunately, when you have leadership which is corrupt over time, they make corruption acceptable,” the prime minister said, apparently taking a dig at his predecessor Nawaz Sharif, head of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

Sharif, 72, is in London since November 2019 after the Lahore High Court granted him permission to go abroad for four weeks for treatment. The three-time premier, his daughter Maryam and son-in-law Muhammad Safdar were convicted in the Avenfield properties case on July 6, 2018.

Sharif was also sentenced to seven years in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills case in December 2018. But, he was bailed out in both cases and also allowed to go to London for medical treatment.

The Dawn newspaper reported that while seeking viewpoints of the international scholars, Khan hinted that he would be holding similar dialogues with renowned scholars in the future as well.

He stressed the need to save the Muslim youth from being inundated with obscenity and pornographic material available on the internet.

The scholars suggested certain collective efforts by the Muslim countries to counter the negative effects of modernity.

Dr Seyyed Hossein Nasr, University Professor of Islamic Studies at the George Washington University, said: “Today, the world is a more precarious and dangerous place for the youth”.

He denounced western elements that talked about Islam in a negative tone, which he said was tantamount to attacking the religion.

Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, an American scholar, likened the issue of corruption to a rotten apple which could decay a society.

He said that the Holy Quran had explained the issue of corruption and its impact upon individuals and society.

He was of the opinion that Islam had tasked men to take care of women and children in society.

He stressed that young people should be taught to honour women.

“Not going to places that you shouldn’t be, that onus is first and foremost on the men and we can’t blame the victims. At the same time women need to understand there are wolves out there and those wolves are real,” he said.

Dr Abdal Hakim Murad, dean of the Cambridge Muslim College, said information on mobile phones for the young generations was a real challenge for most of societies across the globe.

“Everybody knows the key trigger has been the availability, even to young children, of high-resolution images of things that should be private and not made part of public entertainment.

“If the adolescent mind grows up recurrently addicted to these images, neuroscientists have pointed out that this results in permanent damage,” he said, as he regretted that the internet was not something that could be regulated by individual nation states.

Dr Osman Bakar from the University of Malaysia emphasised the need for interfaith and intercultural dialogue, which he said would bring stability.

Sheikh Abdullah bin Bayyah, chairman of the UAE’s Fatwa Council, said: “We are living in the age of globalisation and the advent of social media, internet and other modern concepts has a huge impact upon the youth.”

He suggested the idea of seeking ‘Sakinah’ by the youth, which means peacefulness of mind.

According to him, it is the quality of soul that helps remove agitation from a person’s mind.

He underlined the need for the establishment of a university for Muslim youth that could focus on teaching morals and ethics. PTI