The number of recorded COVID-19 infections in India has risen above 24 million according to recent reports that the highly transmissible coronavirus mutant first detected in the country was spreading across the globe.
The B.1.617 variant of the virus, first identified in India has been found in cases in eight countries of the Americas, including Canada and the United States, Jairo Mendez, a World Health Organization infectious diseases expert said.
Al Jazeera reports that people infected by the variant included travelers in Panama and Argentina who had arrived from India or Europe. In the Caribbean, cases of the Indian variant have been detected in Aruba, Dutch Sint Maarten and the French department of Guadeloupe.
The mutant strain has also been detected in Britain, as well as in Singapore.
“These variants have a greater capacity for transmission but so far we have not found any collateral consequences; the only worry is that they spread faster,” Mendez said.
Public Health England said the total number of confirmed cases of the variant had more than doubled in the past week to 1,313 across the United Kingdom.
