New 'double mutant variant' of Covid detected in 18 states: Centre

"Though VOCs and a new double mutant variant have been found in India, these have not been detected in numbers sufficient to either establish a direct relationship or explain the rapid increase in cases in some states," the health ministry said in a statement.

Out of 10,787, the British variant of the virus has been reported in 736 samples in India.

The South African strain of coronavirus has been detected in 34 people in the country while the Brazil variant has been found in one sample, the ministry informed.

The samples were subjected to genome sequencing, a testing process to understand the complete genetics of an organism, by a government consortium of ten national laboratories.

Genome tests were done on samples from arriving international travellers.

Five States of Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Gujarat are reporting a surge in the COVID daily new cases. These states account for 77.44% of the new cases.

47,262 new cases were registered in the last 24 hours.

Six states cumulatively account for 81.65% of the new cases reported in the past 24 hours. Maharashtra has reported the highest daily new cases at 28,699. It is followed by Punjab with 2,254 while Karnataka reported 2,010 new cases.