A fortnight ago, health ministry officials declared that a new double mutant strain of the Coronavirus—its formal scientific classification being B.1.617—had been found in India. This variant has grown to become common across India and is touted to have accelerated the spread of the virus across different states. But what exactly is this double mutant strain and what is its relation to the surge in cases being experienced in some states like Maharashtra and Punjab?

According to Dr N K Ganguly, former director of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the major mutational virus being found in approximately 76 per cent of India’s 10,000+ samples is the B117 UK variant. “This strain is 70 per cent more transmissible. It doesn’t target older people who are getting vaccinated and/or sitting at home. It targets people above the age of 29 years, who are asymptomatic and who step out of home regularly to work. The other worrisome variants are the Brazilian variants and South African variants. However, the first-ever double mutant strain was found in California… whose positioning is such that they cannot be suppressed by vaccines.”