B.1.617 Covid-19 variant has reached 53 nations: WHO

The B1617 Covid19 variant first detected in India has now been found in 53 countries according to the WHO which noted that India recorded a 23 per cent decrease in the number of new cases in the last seven days but they were still the highest in the worldThe World Health Organisationrsquos Covid19 Weekly Epidemiological Update dated May 25 said that over the past week the number of new cases and deaths continued to decrease globally with over 41 million new cases and 84000 new deaths reported a 14 per cent and 2 per cent decrease respectively compared to the previous weekAccording to the update the B1617 variant first detected in India is now prevalent in 53 countries globallyThe update gave a breakup of prevalence of the three sublineages of the B1617 variant in countries territories and areas as of May 25WHO has declared B1617 as a ldquovariant of concernrdquo and the update noted that this variant has ldquoincreased transmissibilityrdquo disease severity is ldquounder investigationrdquo risk of reinfection is ldquounder investigation possible modest reduction in neutralization activity B16171rdquo ldquoDespite a declining global trend over the past four weeks incidence of Covid19 cases and deaths remain high and substantial increases have been observed in many countries throughout the worldrdquo it saidThe update further said that the SouthEast Asia Region reported over 2 million new cases and over 32000 new deathsldquoWhile the overall incidence of cases continues to decrease driven primarily by trends in India death incidence continued to increase for a tenth consecutive week and sizable increases have been observed in other countries in the regionrdquo it saidMeanwhile WHO has sought more data on Chinarsquos Sinovac Biotechmade Covid19 vaccine named CoronaVacUS playing politics over probe ChinaChina on Thursday accused the Joe Biden administration of playing politics by calling for a renewed investigation into the origins of the Covid19 pandemic that was first detected in China in late 2019 Biden has told US intelligence officials to redouble their efforts to probe the source including any possibility the trail might lead to a Chinese laboratory The order is being seen as an attempt to press China to be more open about the outbreak The US president has sought a report within 90 daysMelbourne set for 4th lockdownAustraliarsquos secondlargest city was set to enter its fourth lockdown on Thursday as concern grew over the rapid spread of infections from a coronavirus variant The sevenday lockdown for Melbourne and the rest of Victoria state comes after a new cluster in the city rose to 26 infections including a person who was in intensive care Another 10000 people have had some degree of contact with those already infectedAlso ReadlsquoCentre in talks with intrsquol vax makers for a yearrsquo539384No of new cases reported globally in the past 24 hours168520476Total no of cases worldwide3501002Total no of deaths worldwideSource WHOJohns HopkinsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever