GENEVA, Switzerland
The World Health Organization said 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.
Earlier
this week, the WHO declared B.1.617 -- which counts three so-called
sub-lineages with slightly different mutations and characteristics -- as a
"variant of concern".
It was therefore added to the list containing
three other variants of Covid-19 -- those first detected in Britain, Brazil
and South Africa.
The
variants are seen as more dangerous than the original version of the virus
because they are either being more transmissible, deadly or able to get past
some vaccine protections.
The
WHO explained Wednesday that B.1.617 was added to the list because it appears
to be transmitting more easily than the original virus, pointing to the
"rapid increases in prevalence in multiple countries".
WHO
also pointed to "preliminary evidence" that the variant was more
resistant to treatment with the monoclonal antibody Bamlanivimab, and also
highlighted early lab studies indicating "limited reduction in
neutralisation by antibodies".
It
stressed, though, that "real-world impacts" on the effectiveness of
vaccines against the variant for instance "may be limited".
WHO
said the spread of B.1.617, alongside other more transmittable variants,
appeared to be one of several factors fuelling India's dramatic surge in new
cases and deaths.
India,
a country of 1.3 billion people is the world's second-most infected after
the United States with nearly 23 million Covid-19
cases, and is currently recording more than 300,000 new cases and close to
4,000 deaths each day.
The
new surge in cases has ravaged major cities, including the capital New Delhi
and financial hub Mumbai, pushing hospitals to breaking point and leading to
severe shortages in oxygen and beds.
"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.
It
also pointed to "several religious and political mass gathering events
which increased social mixing; and, under-use of and reduced adherence to
public health and social measures".
"The
exact contributions of each of these factors on increased transmission in India
are not well understood."
WHO
stressed that so far, only 0.1 percent of positive Covid tests in India had
been genetically sequenced and uploaded to the GISAID database to identify the
variant in question.
By the
end of April, B.1.617.1 and B.1.617.2 accounted for 21 and seven percent
respectively of all sequenced samples from India, 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.
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