Sujeet Singh, director of the Indian National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), said that in Maharashtra, the B.1.617 variant was found in proportions of over 50% in many cities. Nearly 64 cases of the UK strain were found in Maharashtra, six cases of the South African strain, one of the Brazilian strain and 427 cases of the Indian double mutant variant. Over 1,770 samples were sequenced for variants in Maharashtra.
The Covid-19 surge in Delhi, however, seems to be driven mainly by the UK variant B.1.1.7. In Delhi, there are primarily two types of variants — B.1.617 and the UK strain — found in the genome sequenced samples, the NCDC director said. The B.1.617 variant of coronavirus is also known as the double mutant strain. The UK variant was found in 28% of samples in the second week of March. In the last week of the month, 50% of samples had this variant, Singh added.
West Bengal had 40 cases of the UK strain B.1.1.7, nine cases of the South African strain B.1.351 and 124 cases of the Indian double mutant B.1.617.
