India’s tally exceeds 24 million as mutant strain goes global

India’s tally of Covid-19 infections rose past 24 million, amid reports that the highly transmissible variant first detected here was spreading globally.

The B.1.617 variant has been found in eight nations in the Americas, including Canada and the United States, said Jairo Mendez, an infectious diseases expert with the World Health Organisation (WHO).

“Such 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.

Among the infected were travellers in Panama and Argentina who had arrived from India or Europe.

In the Caribbean, the variant was found in Aruba, Dutch St Maarten and the French department of Guadeloupe.

B.1.617 has spread to the Himalayan nation of Nepal and has also been detected in Britain and Singapore.

“The human catastrophe unfolding in India and Nepal should be a warning to other countries in the region to invest heavily in surge capacity for an emergency response,” said Yamini Mishra of the rights group Amnesty International.

“The virus is spreading and transcending borders at a frightening speed and will continue to hit the region’s most marginalised populations hardest of all,” the group’s AsiaPacific director said in a statement.

Indian health ministry data show 4,000 deaths and 343,144 infections over the last 24 hours. It was the third consecutive day of 4,000 deaths, or more, but daily infections have kept below last week’s peak of 414,188.

While the tally of infections crossed 24 million, the death toll stood at 262,317, since the pandemic first struck India more than a year ago. — Reuters