Indian Covid-19 variant found in 44 countries, all regions: WHO

Bodies of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) victims are cremated on the bank of Bagmati River as the country recorded the highest daily increase in deaths since the pandemic began, in Kathmandu, Nepal May 3, 2021. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar
The World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday that a variant of Covid-19 behind the acceleration of India's explosive outbreak has been found in dozens of countries all over the world.
The UN health agency said the B.1.617 variant of Covid-19, first found in India in October, had been detected in sequences uploaded to the GISAID open-access database "from 44 countries in all six WHO regions," adding it had received "reports of detections from five additional countries".