India’s Double Mutant Corona Virus Found In 17 Countries Says WHO

The WHO said that recent research has highlighted the spread of COVID-19 second wave in India is considerably faster than the spread of the coronavirus during the first wave.

Geneva – COVID-19 has changed its existing form and the Indian variant of the Coronavirus is spreading more rapidly in India. The Indian variant also mentioned as B.1.617 version of the Coronavirus has been observed in over 1200 sequences from 17 countries all over the world so far.

The WHO has shown its concern about this alarming situation and reported that there were around 57 lakh cases of coronavirus infection recorded during the last week. World Health Organization has also stated that this figure has crossed the highest compared to all the previous waves.

1200+ sequences were created among 17 countries

The United Nations Health Agency in its weekly pandemic report has stated that the Indian variant Coronavirus or B1.1.617 is supposed to be the main reason for the rising coronavirus cases reported in India. The WHO has described this as Variants as Interest (VOI) instead of Variants of Concern. It is said that as of 27^th April, this variant of B.1.617 has been found in at least 17 countries all over the world and more than 1200 sequences have been reported to GISAID.

Data Provided by GISAID

GISAID – a German non-profit organization, provides public access to the genome data of the coronavirus which is responsible for the COVID-19 global pandemics and influenza virus. Internationally the new variant of coronavirus cases is increasing for the ninth consecutive week with more than 5.6 million new cases reported in the last week. According to a report, India accounts for 38 per cent of the global cases of Coronavirus reported in the last week.

Spread of the second wave much faster than the first wave

This agency has said that, “The emerging variants of the SARS-COV-2 within the Pango variant B.1.617 is growing at a much faster pace than other types of transmission in India. This variant is said to be more contagious and can cause this rate to be higher in the future. Also, the other types of coronavirus being transmitted among people are becoming more contagious.”