According to the WHO, the Indian variant has been found “in at least 17 countries”

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday announced that an Indian variant of the coronavirus suspected to have plunged India into a major health crisis has been found “in at least 17 countries”.

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According to the WHO, the B.1.617 variant is known as the Indian variant because it first occurred in India, and has been found in more than 1,200 genetic sequences, “in at least 17 countries”.

“Most of the footage uploaded to the GISAID database came from India, the UK, the US and Singapore,” the WHO said in its weekly pandemic update.

In recent days, this variant has been reported in many European countries (Belgium, Switzerland, Greece, Italy).

Basic WHO modeling based on sequences submitted to GISAID “indicates that B.1.617 has a higher growth rate than other variants circulating in India, indicating a higher epidemic”.

The WHO recently classified this variant as a “variant of interest” and not a “variation of concern”. However, the latter name implies that this variant is more dangerous (more infectious, more lethal and capable of escaping vaccine immunity).

And this variant still raises questions. “Other behaviors” can also be a source of recurrence of cases in India, such as WHO, health restrictions and non-compliance with mass meetings.

Other variations currently in circulation are also highly contagious, but the combination of the two factors could play a role in “resuscitation of cases” in India, the agency said.

India is facing a burst of cases, breaking the world record of 352,991 and the national record of 2,812 deaths on Monday, bringing the total number of cases worldwide to 147.7 million.

To understand the role it is playing in the health crisis in India “… …” urgently “further research” is needed on the risk of infection, severity and reconstruction of the Indian variant.