After showing strong signs of flattening the coronavirus curve, India is once again facing the Covid rampage, as the second wave of the pandemic is affecting more than 3 lakhs of people every day in the nation. Medical experts have suggested that the new Covid variant B.1.617 first detected in India could be the result of the sudden surge in positive cases.
Some medical experts also believe that triple mutation of Covid has happened in India, and it could be contributing to the rising number of cases. And now, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that this Indian variant of coronavirus could be already there in at least 17 countries.
Super-spreading Indian Covid variant in 17 countries
The UN health agency made this conclusion after detecting the Indian variant of Covid in over 1,200 sequences uploaded to the GISAID open-access database from at least 17 countries.
WHO, in its weekly epidemiological update on the pandemic revealed that these sequences were mostly seen in countries like the United States, United Kingdom, and Singapore. The World Health Organization has recently listed the B.1.617 as a 'variant of interest.'
Experts at WHO believe that the Indian variant is more transmissible than the previous variants of Covid-19, and it may even have the ability to dodge vaccine protection.
Coronavirus spreading like wildfire in India
On April 27, India witnessed more than 3,60,000 positive cases and 3,293 Covid-related deaths. According to the latest updates, there are more than 14 crore coronavirus patients in the world, and the death toll has already crossed 3.1 million.
As the coronavirus pandemic continues its killing spree in India, the Central government has decided to completely lock down 150 districts in the nation. The districts are selected based on the test positivity rates in these regions. The Union of Health Ministry has already contacted the state governments and has asked them to completely lock down districts mentioned in the list.
