What are Variants of Interest (VoI) and Variants of Concern (VoC)?
- When the mutations happen – if there is any previous association with any other similar variant which is felt to have an impact on public health – then it becomes a Variant under Investigation.
- Once genetic markers are identified which can have association with receptor binding domain or which have an implication on antibodies or neutralizing assays, we start calling them as Variants of Interest.
- The moment we get evidence for increased transmission through field-site and clinical correlations, it becomes a Variant of Concern.
Variants of concern are those that have one or more of the following characteristics:
- Increased transmissibility
- Change in virulence/ disease presentation
- Evading the diagnostics, drugs and vaccines
- The 1st Variant of Concern was announced by the UK where it was found. Currently there are four variants of concern identified by the scientists - Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta.
