Indian covid-19 variant has spread to 44 countries – WHO

New Delhi: The ‘Indian strain’ of the coronavirus or the double mutant variant which has triggered a second wave of COVID-19 cases in the country, has been detected in at least 44 countries, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). The UN health agency said the B1617 variant of Covid-19, first found in India in October, had been detected in sequences uploaded to the GISAID open-access database “from 44 countries in all six WHO regions,” adding it had received “reports of detections from five additional countries”.

Earlier this week, the B.1.617 variant of SARS- CoV2 or the ‘Indian strain’, feared to be contributing to a surge in cases in India, was designated as the Variants of Interest (VOI) by WHO, and three other variants the British, Brazilian and South African were also added to the list. Outside India, the report said that Britain had reported the largest number of Covid cases caused by the variant. The variants are seen as more dangerous than the original version of the virus because they are either being more transmissible, deadly or able to get past some vaccine protections.