India keeps struggling to curb the New COVID-19 variant, ranks the 2nd worldwide

Shafaq News / 414,188 new cases and 3,915 deaths over the past 24 hours in India, a new record in the Country that struggles to curb Covid-19.

India's tally of infections passed 21 million (21,491,598). The death toll reached 234,083.

Despite the high level of recovery (about 99%), Experts believe the situation is out of control in a nation of 1.35 billion. Its weekly data showed that about 1.57 million infections and more than 200 thousand deaths were recorded.

Earlier, the World Health Organization said in its weekly epidemiological update that India accounted for 38% of the 5.7 million cases reported worldwide to it last week.

The WHO has described it as a "variant of interest", suggesting it may have mutations that would make the virus more transmissible, cause more severe disease or evade vaccine immunity. Other strains with known risks, such as those first detected in the United Kingdom, Brazil and South Africa, have been categorized as "variants of concern," a higher threat level.