Record cases in India could be linked to ‘double mutant’ virus strain

India logged another grim global record of 412,262 Covid-19 cases on Thursday as officials said a “double mutant variant” could be linked to the deadly second wave sweeping across various states.

India registered 3,980 Covid-19 deaths in the past 24 hours, making it the deadliest day in the country since the pandemic began and raising the death toll to 230,168, data from the government showed.

India became the first country to cross 400,000 daily cases on Saturday. It has seen more than 300,000 cases daily over the past fortnight, taking its caseload past 21 million, second only to the United States.

However, experts say the actual figures may be 5-10 times higher due to low-testing rates and many people dying at home, particularly in rural areas.

Hospitals in cities including Bengaluru are scrabbling for beds and oxygen as they desperately fight the surge in infections, while morgues and crematoriums struggle to deal with a continuous flow of bodies.

Many people have died in ambulances and car parks waiting for a bed or oxygen. Although the capital Delhi has been receiving supplies of more medical oxygen, including via ‘Oxygen Express’ trains, shortages of the gas have sparked distress calls from hospitals in other cities.

The government’s top scientific adviser, K Vijay Raghavan, warned that a third Covid-19 wave was inevitable and admitted for the first time that a “double–mutant” variant - when two mutations come together in the same virus strain - could be fuelling the infection surge.

“A phase three is inevitable, given the high levels of the circulating virus,” Raghavan said at a briefing on Wednesday evening. “But it is not clear on what time scale this will occur. We should prepare for a new wave.”

He added the spread of the highly infectious British variant had slowed. Vaccines may need to be updated to tackle the new strains that were spreading fast, Raghavan added.
New Delhi
 (dpa), 6 May, 2021