This strain caused India to suffer the second heavy wave of Covid-19 with a record high number of morbidity and mortality. It has also been found in 10 countries and regions.
According to India’s report of new daily Covid-19 cases, in the past two days, the country has faced a dire situation with a record number of cases – more than 200,000 people become infected with new nCoV every day. The state of Maharashtra, the country’s hardest hit, recorded nearly 60,000 new cases overnight.
Health experts fear that the double strain is gradually invading the country of 1.3 billion people, making the Covid-19 wave more dangerous than ever. On April 17, according SCMP, India has recorded a total of 14.2 million SARS-CoV-2 infections, ranking 2nd globally and more than 174,300 deaths. Since mid-March, the Covid-19 epidemic in India suddenly became complicated again because of the emergence of a double-strain. “Dual mutants” Maria Van Kerkhove, an epidemiologist at the World Health Organization (WHO), said that the dual-strain in India is falling into the interest of experts. “Two of the mutations it possesses have been found in other strains in the world,” added Maria. According to the expert, this makes the double variant in India possible to increase transmission, reduce the effectiveness of the vaccine. The second wave of Covid-19 threatens to destroy all of the country’s anti-epidemic efforts, despite harsh measures. The double-strain variant, B.1.617, was first detected in India with 2 mutants E484Q and L452R at the same time. 
Migrant workers crowded on a bus to their homeland when New Delhi was frozen in March 2020. Photo: AP. Viruses are always changing, it’s part of evolutionary biology. Some mutations weaken the virus, but others allow it to multiply, thrive, or spread faster. According to the Outbreak – a data site using the GISAID global storage system – the popularity of this double strain has increased by 52% compared to genetically sequenced samples in almost January. According to Anurag Agrawal, director of the Indian Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, after the Geomomics Institute for genetic sequencing, some districts of the state of Maharashtra, the epicenter of the current wave, the rate of double-mutation infection increased. to more than 60%. B.1.617 appeared in patient samples in 10 states of India. Mr. Agrawal predicts that this number will be increased by two key mutations that make it infectious, immune-resistant. Rakesh Mishra, director of the Center for Cell and Molecular Biology, based in Hyderabad, responsible for the nCoV genome project, warns: “This strain spreads faster than any other found. before. Sooner or later, it will become a popular strain of all India ”, According to Mr. Agrawal, the characteristics of the double strain variable are being investigated and analyzed by experts. The L452R mutation once made the situation of the Covid-19 epidemic in the US wobbly. The L452R mutation increased viral transmission by 20% and antibody efficiency by 50%, he said. “Variant B. 1.617 has all the signs of a very dangerous virus. We have to do everything we can to identify the spread and stop it, ”said William A. Haseltine, former professor of Harvard Medical School, USA, wrote on Forbes on April 12. According to the Outbreak, B.1.617 detected in at least 10 countries and territories, including UK, USA, Australia, New Zealand. 
The funeral system in India is overcrowded because of a record high number of deaths. Photo: Anadolu Agency. “There are corpses everywhere” According to the VICE , in the northern Indian city of Lucknow, videos of the huge number of cremated bodies spread at breakneck speed. It is like wildfire. On April 15, a reporter of the company The Print describes this horrifying scene as “corpses everywhere”, “every 10 minutes a body must be cremated”. Not only were the bodies that had died because Covid-19 needed cremation, but the cemeteries in India were overrun with the dead. An employee at Baikunth Dham shared with The Print: “We are overworked. After the holiday season, the number of deaths began to increase. I haven’t taken a break since last year. Every day, nearly 60-65 bodies are brought here. Pointing his finger towards the injured leg, the person added: “I had an accident but I can’t rest. The number of people who died lately is not a normal number. Many people have to wait 5-6 hours for it. Their relatives were cremated in turn. Before that, the average number was about 20-25 bodies. ” However, no one can determine whether all these deaths were due to Covid-19 or something else. 
An Indian woman is given the Covid-19 vaccine. Photo: Reuters. A shortage of hospital beds and pre-treatment deaths are common in India – similar to what happened in Brazil or the US recently. There is also a critical shortage of drugs used urgently during the Covid-19 pandemic, Remdesivir and Tocilizumab. People have to go to the black market to find medicine. Apart from Lucknow, cemeteries in other cities are also overloaded. In Bhopal, central India, some cremation facilities report they receive 40 bodies a day. In the capital New Delhi, a cremation site received more than 400 deaths from Covid-19 in the first 13 days of April. In the city of Gujarat, western India, a man has to wait 12 hours for his brother. in the past, the victim died of Covid-19, and was allowed to go to his final resting place. The big problem facing India is that the vaccination rate is too low. From February 16 to April 16, the number of people vaccinated in this country was 14.9 million, accounting for only 1.1% of the population. Many experts warn that at the current rate of immunization, it could take India up to 10 years to fully cover 70% of the population.
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