India keeps struggling to curb the New COVID-19 variant

India keeps struggling to curb the New COVID-19 variant
2021-05-05T09:44:46+00:00

Shafaq News / 386,452 new cases and 3,780 deaths over the past 24 hours in India, a new record in the Country that struggles to curb Covid-19.

The last 24 hours brought India's tally of infections to more than 20 million (20,665,148). It was also the deadliest day so far, carrying the toll to 226,188.

Experts believe the official tally vastly underestimates the actual toll in a nation of 1.35 billion, however.

The World Health Organization said in its weekly epidemiological update that India accounted for 38% of the 5.7 million cases reported worldwide to it last week.

Early modeling showed that the B.1.617 variant of the virus detected in India had a higher growth rate than other variants in the country, suggesting increased transmissibility, it said.

The WHO has described it as a "variant of interest", suggesting it may have mutations that would make the virus more transmissible, cause more severe disease or evade vaccine immunity. Other strains with known risks, such as those first detected in the United Kingdom, Brazil and South Africa, have been categorized as "variants of concern," a higher threat level.

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