In a latest development, currently in India there are over 400 coronavirus patients who are found to be affected with the with three mutant variants first detected in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil. Of these 158 new cases were reported in the last two weeks, the Centre revealed raising concerns over the sudden spike of COVID-19 cases in the country.
On March 4, there were 242 such cases across the country, the centre said.
Minister of State for Health, Ashwini Choubey, said that these three mutated variants also have the potential to re-infect people who have been previously infected with SARS-CoV-2 and are believed to be more contagious or easier to catch.
In India, the mutant strain from the United Kingdom was first reported on December 29 in six passengers who had returned from Britain. These were also the first cases of a mutant strain in the country.
The new strain had created panic worldwide following which India had banned flights temporarily.
India has been seeing a huge surge in daily Covid infections over the last few days; it logged more than 20,000 cases everyday over the last one week.
35,871 new cased were reported in the last 24 hours taking the tally to 1.14 crore total infections, the government said this morning. This is the biggest daily surge since early December.