According to a senior government official, India has discovered a “double mutant version” of the novel coronavirus in 206 samples from the worst-affected western state of Maharashtra. The new variant was also found in nine samples in the capital, New Delhi, according to Sujeet Kumar Singh, director of the National Center for Disease Control.

A CNN tally of figures from the Indian Ministry of Health, India reported 53,476 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday, March 25th, the largest single-day increase in cases since October 23rd. In a recent increase in cases following a drop in January and February this year, the country has been registering more than 35,000 new cases daily for more than a week.

The increase in cases coincides with the declaration by the country’s top researchers that there are approximately 800 different forms of concern in the country. Last summer, the country’s first wave of infections began to rise and peaked in September, with numbers gradually decreasing since then. By February of this year, the daily cases had dropped by nearly 90%, to about 10,000 a day. However, by the beginning of March, it was clear that cases were gradually increasing again, and they have now exploded in the last few weeks. According to data from Johns Hopkins University, India has now recorded over 11.7 million cases and 160,000 deaths as a result of the disease.

Read the full story here: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-india-cases-idUSKBN2BG1QB