The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday informed that the B.1.617 variant of Covid-19, first found in India in October last year, had been detected in sequences uploaded "from 44 countries in all six WHO regions".

"As of 11 May, over 4500 sequences have been uploaded to GISAID (platform of data sharing mechanism for influenza) and assigned to B.1.617 from 44 countries in all six WHO regions, and WHO has received reports of detections from five additional countries," WHO said in its weekly epidemiological update on the pandemic.