{"id":120568,"date":"2021-04-28T12:51:38","date_gmt":"2021-04-28T04:51:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=120568"},"modified":"2021-04-28T12:51:40","modified_gmt":"2021-04-28T04:51:40","slug":"covid-19-indian-variant-found-in-at-least-17-countries-says-who","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=120568","title":{"rendered":"Covid-19: Indian variant found in at least 17 countries, says WHO"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

GENEVA, April 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) —\u00a0The World Health Organization said that a variant of COVID-19 feared to be contributing to a surge in coronavirus cases in India has been found in more than a dozen countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UN health agency said the B1617 variant of COVID-19 first found in India had as of Tuesday been detected in more than 1,200 sequences uploaded to the GISAID open-access database “from at least 17 countries”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Most sequences were uploaded from India, the United Kingdom, USA and Singapore,” the WHO said in its weekly epidemiological update on the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The WHO recently listed B1617 – which counts several sub-lineages with slightly different mutations and characteristics –\u00a0as a “variant of interest”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But so far it has stopped short of declaring it a “variant of concern”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That label would indicate that it is more dangerous that the original version of the virus by for instance being more transmissible, deadly or able to dodge vaccine protections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

India is facing surging new cases and deaths in the pandemic, and fears are rising that the variant could be contributing to the unfolding catastrophe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The explosion in infections in India – 350,000 new cases were recorded<\/a> there on Tuesday alone – has driven a surge in global cases to 147.7 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The virus has now killed more than 3.1 million people worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The WHO acknowledged that its preliminary modelling based on sequences submitted to GISAID indicates “that B1617 has a higher growth rate than other circulating variants in India, suggesting potential increased transmissibility”.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It stressed that other variants circulating at the same time were also showing increased transmissibility, and that the combination “may be playing a role in the current resurgence in this country”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Indeed, studies have highlighted that the spread of the second wave has been much faster than the first,” the WHO said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It highlighted though that “other drivers” could be contributing to the surge, including lax adherence to public health measures as well as mass gatherings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Further investigation is needed to understand the relative contribution of these factors,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UN agency also stressed that “further robust studies” into the characteristics of B1617 and other variants, including impacts on transmissibility, severity and the risk of reinfection, were “urgently needed”. — NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GENEVA, April 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) —\u00a0The World Health Organization said that a variant of COVID-19 feared to be contributing to a surge in coronavirus cases in India has been found in more than a dozen countries. The UN health agency said the B1617 variant of COVID-19 first found in India had as of Tuesday been detected […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":120570,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208,215,209],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120568"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=120568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/120570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=120568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=120568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=120568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}