The 'double mutant' in India as COVID cases suddenly surge

This troubling report from India from REUTERS:

India has detected a “double mutant variant” of the novel coronavirus in 206 samples in the worst-hit western state of Maharashtra, a senior government official said on Wednesday.

The new variant was also detected in nine samples in the capital New Delhi, the director of the National Centre for Disease Control, Sujeet Kumar Singh, told a news conference.

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Officials are checking if the variant, where two mutations come together in the same virus, may be more infectious or less affected by vaccines.


Some 10,787 samples from 18 Indian states also showed up 771 cases of known variants - 736 of the UK, 34 of the South African and one Brazilian.


Officials say the variants are not linked to a spike in cases in India.


India reported 47,262 cases and 275 deaths on Wednesday - the sharpest daily rise this year.

The Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics (INSACOG), a group of 10 national laboratories under India's health ministry, carried out genomic sequencing on the latest samples. Genomic sequencing is a testing process to map the entire genetic code of an organism - in this case, the virus.

The nation is suddenly finding itself embroiled in a surge..

On Wednesday, officials in India reported 47,292 new coronavirus cases, the highest single daily rise since November – and double the amount of cases reported a week ago.

A network of 10 government laboratories that analyze thousands of swabs daily has detected the new variant in between 15% and 20% of samples collected in Maharashtra, India’s second-most populous state.