Variant among accelerators of India's Covid explosion: WHO top scientist

The WHO recently listed B.1.617 -- which counts several sub-lineages with slightly different mutations and characteristics -- as a "variant of interest".But so far it has stopped short of adding it to its short list of "variants of concern" -- a label indicating it is more dangerous than the original version of the virus by being more transmissible, deadly or able to get past vaccine protections. Several national health authorities, including in the United States and Britain, have meanwhile said they consider B.1.617 a variant of concern, and Swaminathan said she expected the WHO to soon follow suit.

Swaminathan, however, insisted that the variant alone could not be blamed for the dramatic surge in cases and deaths seen in India, pointing to "huge social mixing and large gatherings" in recent months. Mass election rallies held by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other politicians have for instance partly been blamed by some for the staggering rise in infections. But even as many in India felt the crisis was over, dropping mask-wearing and other protection measures, the virus was quietly spreading.

Swaminathan has also warned that the jabs alone would not be enough to gain control of the situation. She pointed out that India, the world's largest vaccine-making nation, had only fully vaccinated around two percent of the 1.3 billion-plus population. "It's going to take many months if not years to get to the point of 70 to 80 percent coverage," she said.

Swaminathan stressed that for the foreseeable future, India needs to depend on tried and tested public health and social measures to bring down transmission."The more the virus is replicating and spreading and transmitting, the more chances are that... mutations will develop and adapt," Swaminathan said. "Variants which accumulate a lot of mutations may ultimately become resistant to the current vaccines that we have," she warned. "That's going to be a problem for the whole world."