Covid 19 coronavirus: ‘double mutant’ variant found as India cases rise

A new “double mutant” variant of the coronavirus has been detected in India as cases rise again in the world’s second most populous nation.

Cases in India had mysteriously plummeted since September and life was returning to normal last month.

Infections had fallen to around 9,000 a day from a peak of around 100,000 new cases a day at the nation’s peak in September.

However, cases began to rise last month and more than 47,000 new infections were detected in the last 24 hours, along with 275 deaths, the highest number of deaths in a day in more than four months.

Officials are reluctant to say if there are new variants behind the increase, as 10,787 samples from 18 Indian states also showed 771 cases of known variants: 736 from the UK, 34 from South Africa and one Brazilian.

However, authorities have made a new discovery in Maharashtra, the country’s worst-affected western state, which is home to India’s financial capital, Mumbai.

They have found what they describe as a “double mutant” in more than 200 samples.

Epidemiologists said that the term “double mutant” refers to a completely new variant that has the characteristics of two already identified variants.

“Double mutant is not a scientific term. It is just another mutant that seems to be unique to India,” said Ramanan Laxminarayan, founder of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy in New Delhi.

“Is there any reason to be concerned about this particular variant? Not yet, because we have no evidence that these variants are more transmissible or more lethal than we already have,” he said.

The virus has mutated many times since the pandemic broke out. Most mutations are harmless, but scientists have been investigating which ones could make the virus spread faster or make people sicker.

Before this new wave of infections set in, India’s tough restrictions had been gradually relaxed to boost the economy.

India has so far registered more than 11.7 million cases, the third most infected nation behind the United States and Brazil, with more than 160,000 deaths, one of the lowest death rates among the most affected countries.

The authorities thought they had seen the worst of the pandemic and in January they launched the great inoculation campaign with the backing of being the largest vaccine manufacturer in the world.

But an increase in infections and a slower-than-expected vaccine rollout are sounding the alarm bells.

“We must recognize that we are now facing a growing number of cases in many parts of the country and vaccination must be one of the key aspects to respond to that strategically,” public health expert Anant Bhan told AFP.

India started its vaccination campaign with frontline and healthcare workers, before expanding it to include people over the age of 60 and over the age of 45 with serious illnesses. As of April 1, everyone over the age of 45 will also be eligible.

More than 50 million injections have been given and about three million are being added per day, but at this rate the goal will not be reached.