The Health Ministry today informed that a new “double mutant variant” of the coronavirus has been detected in 18 states in the country in addition to many other strains.
Amid fears of a second wave of the Covid-crisis in the country, the Health Ministry today informed that a new “double mutant variant” of the coronavirus has been detected in 18 states in the country in addition to many other strains or variants of concern (VOCs) which have also found abroad.
“Though VOCs and a new double mutant variant have been found in India, these have not been detected in numbers sufficient to either establish a direct relationship or explain the rapid increase in cases in some States,” the ministry added.
“Since INSACOG initiated its work, 771 variants of concerns (VOCs) have been detected in a total of 10787 positive samples shared by States/UTs. These include 736 samples positive for viruses of the UK (B.1.1.7) lineage. 34 samples were found positive for viruses of the South African (B.1.351) lineage. 1 sample was found positive for viruses of the Brazilian (P.1) lineage. The samples with these VOCs have been identified in 18 States of the country,” the health ministry said today.
The British variant, among 10,787 cases, has been reported in 736 samples in India. The South African strain of coronavirus has been detected in 34 people in the country and the Brazil variant has been seen in one sample, the government said.
The government consortium of ten national laboratories had subjected the samples to genome sequencing – a testing process to understand the complete genetics of an organism.
Samples from arriving international travelers, contacts of those positive for the new strains and community samples from most of the states where the 10 national labs are there were subjected to the genome tests.
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