(Asian News Hub) – As the country struggles with the highest single-day tally of new infections and deaths, another concern has emerged as the government on Wednesday informed that a new ‘double mutant variant’ of the coronavirus had been detected in India in addition to many other variants of concern (VOCs) also found abroad.
A total of 771 VOCs have been detected in a total of 10,787 positive samples shared by the states and union territories, the Health Ministry informed.
These include 736 samples positive for viruses of the UK (B.1.1.7) lineage, 34 samples of the South African (B.1.351) lineage and one sample of the Brazilian (P.1) lineage.
“Though VOCs and a new double mutant variant have been found in India, these have not been detected in numbers sufficient to either establish or direct relationship or explain the rapid increase in cases in some states,” the Health Ministry said.
These variants were found in 18 states, the government added.
Genomic variants of various viruses are a natural phenomenon and are found in almost all countries, the Ministry added.
Genome sequencing and analysis have been carried out on samples from arriving international travellers, contacts of those positive for VOC and community samples from most of the states at INSACOG partner laboratories which are 10 in number.
Such mutations confer immune escape and increased infectivity.
These mutations have been found in about 15-20 per cent of samples and do not match any previously catalogued VOCs.
Meanwhile, India reported 47,262 new coronavirus infections on Wednesday over the previous 24-hour period, the highest since early November, taking its overall tally to 11.7 million. Only the United States and Brazil have higher caseloads.
