The variant, described by officials as a "Double mutant", has been found in more than 200 samples in the hardest-hit western state of Maharashtra, which is home to India's financial capital of Mumbai.

Epidemiologists said the term "Double mutant" refers to an entirely new variant that has the characteristics of two already identified variants.

Health officials said the new variant had not been detected in large enough numbers to link it to the surge in cases in the state of Maharashtra and other states including Kerala and Punjab.

The virus has been mutating throughout the pandemic.

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A man in PPE and a face mask examines a machine putting labels on purple medicine vials

Bangladesh pharmaceutical companies say they could rid their country of coronavirus in a matter of months. All they need is a vaccine blueprint. But drug makers in the West say they have good reasons for not handing it over.

Most mutations are trivial, but scientists have been investigating which ones might make the virus spread more easily or make people sicker.

"Double mutant is not a scientific term. It is just another mutant which seems to be unique to India," said Ramanan Laxminarayan, founder of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy in New Delhi.

"Is there a reason to be worried about this particular variant? Not as yet, because we have no evidence that these variants are more transmissible or more lethal than what we already have," he added.

About 20% of the samples that contained the new variant in Maharashtra were found in the city of Nagpur, a key commercial and logistics hub, the director of the National Centre for Disease Control, Sujeet Kumar Singh, told a news conference.

Nine samples of the new variant were also found in New Delhi, which has seen a steady rise in infections over the last few weeks, Mr Singh said.

The new variant found in India has two mutations in the spiky protein that the virus uses to fasten itself to cells, said Rakesh Mishra, the director of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, one of the 10 research institutes sequencing the virus.

He added that these genetic tweaks could be of concern since they might help the virus spread more easily and escape the immune system, but he cautioned against linking it to the surge.

Vaccination drive underway

India's two approved vaccines — one developed by AstraZeneca and the other a homegrown shot from Bharat Biotech — are effective against variants of the virus first identified in Britain and Brazil, health officials said.

On Wednesday (local time), India reported 47,262 new infections over the previous 24-hour period, the highest since early November, taking its overall tally to 11.7 million.

Only the United States and Brazil have higher caseloads.

Several states announced a ban on large gatherings ahead of the Hindu festival of Holi this weekend.

The federal government also announced it was expanding its nationwide vaccination campaign to include everyone above the age of 45 years from April.

India places third worldwide in terms of total vaccinations, after the United States and China, but ranks much lower on a per capita basis, the website Our World in Data showed.

Source | Reuters/AP