GENEVA: The World Health Organization said on Wednesday that a variant of Covid-19 behind the acceleration of India’s explosive outbreak has been found in dozens of countries all over the world. The UN health agency said the B.1.617 variant of Covid-19, first found in India in October, had been detected in more than 4,500 samples uploaded to an open-access database “from 44 countries in all six WHO regions.”“And WHO has received reports of detections from five additional countries,” it said in its weekly epidemiological update on the pandemic. Outside of India, it said that Britain had reported the largest number of Covid cases caused by the variant. “WHO found that resurgence and acceleration of Covid-19 transmission in India had several potential contributing factors, including increase in the proportion of cases of SARS-CoV-2 variants with potentially increased transmissibility,” it said. In addition, other more contagious variants are also spreading in the country, including B.1.1.7, which was first detected in Britain.

Source: Manila Times May 12, 2021 00:56 UTC