Maharashtra has seen a surge of Covid-19 cases in the past week, with 5,210 new cases reported on Monday. This comes at a time when two ne...
Maharashtra has seen a surge of Covid-19 cases in the past week, with 5,210 new cases reported on Monday. This comes at a time when two new variants of the virus have been found in samples in the state’s Vidarbha region.
Since February 15, more than 2,400 Covid-19 cases have been reported in Amravati district, and 500 new cases in Yavatmal district. The state government imposed a ten-day lockdown in Yavatmal on Thursday and on Sunday, it announced a strict week-long lockdown in Amravati.
On February 18, the Indian Express reported that during genome sequencing of Covid-19 infected blood samples, researchers found the “E484K” mutation of the virus in four samples from Amravati. Since this mutation has been found in the new, fast-spreading Covid strains in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil, district officials have been concerned that the variant could transmit quickly across Maharashtra and the country.
Researchers in Maharashtra also found the “N440K” mutation in one sample from Yavatmal. The N440K variant had been found in Andhra Pradesh and parts of north India in December 2020.
Last week, the Maharashtra state government denied the detection of any mutations of the virus similar to the ones found in the UK, Brazil or South Africa. But on Saturday,...
