homehealthcare NewsCOVID 19 variants: India's failure to monitor new strains worries experts

COVID-19 variants: India's failure to monitor new strains worries experts

With new infections rising on an average by over three lakh cases for 14 consecutive days, India’s limited ability to track new mutations emerging from its outbreak is a growing concern for scientists.

By CNBCTV18.com May 6, 2021 10:48:26 PM IST (Updated)


The COVID-19 vaccines, now in use in India, work against the new virus strain currently wreaking havoc in India and several other countries. But what concerns scientists is that this strain will not remain as the only version of the pathogen to emerge from the recent pandemic, a Bloomberg report mentioned.
The report highlighted that India's struggle to track new variants could worsen the COVID-19 crisis. With new infections rising on an average by over three lakh cases for 14 consecutive days, India’s limited ability to track new mutations emerging from its outbreak is a growing concern for scientists, the report added.
Second or even third-generation versions of the COVID-19 virus variant known as B.1.617 could already be circulating in India and some are likely to be more deadly, the report said, quoting William Haseltine, a former Harvard Medical School professor and current chairperson at Access Health International, a US-based think tank.