India has reported a new type of coronavirus as it struggles with the highest single-day telly of new infections and deaths this year.
The currency, described by officials as a “double mutant”, has been found in more than 200 specimens in the worst-affected western state of Maharashtra, located in Mumbai, India’s economic capital.
Health officials said not enough new variants were found to link it with the increase in cases in Maharashtra and other states, including Kerala and Punjab.
The term “double mutant” refers to a new variable that has two previously identified characteristics, the pathologists said.
“Double mutant is not a scientific term. It is just another mutant that seems unique to India, ”said Raman Laxminarayan, founder of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy in New Delhi.
“Is there any reason to worry about this particular type? Not yet, because we have no evidence that these types we already have are more transmissible or more lethal, ”he added.
About 20% of the new samples in Maharashtra have been found in Nagpur city, said Sujit Kumar Singh, director of the National Center for Disease Control, at a news conference.
This type is evolving, Singh said, adding that New Delhi has also seen nine such samples, with the last few weeks witnessing a steady increase in infections.
Health officials say two approved vaccines from India – one developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, and another by India Biotech – are effective against the first known types of the virus in Britain and Brazil.
On Wednesday, India recorded 47,262 new infections in the last 24 hours, the highest since early November, with its total number rising to 11.7 million. Only in the United States and Brazil is the case load higher.
The death toll in the last 24 hours has reached 275, the highest this year, with a total of 160,441, according to government figures.
