Covid - Using term ' Indian variant ' for B.1.617 strain has no basis , says health ministry !

NEW DELHI - The Centre on Wednesday clarified that the World Health Organisation (WHO) has not associated the term “Indian variant” with the B.1.617 variant of the coronavirus.

The ministry of health and family welfare in a statement said that the word “Indian” has not been used in the WHO report.

"Several media reports have covered the news of World Health Organisation (WHO) classifying B.1.617 as variant of global concern. Some of these reports have termed the B.1.617 variant of the coronavirus as an Indian variant" the statement added.

The ministry of health and family welfare said that use of the term 'Indian variant' is without basis and unfounded.

Meanwhile, WHO South-East Asia in a tweet said that WHO does not identify viruses or variants with names of countries they are first reported from. We refer to them by their scientific names and request all to do the same for consistency.

Earlier this week, the WHO declared B.1.617 -- which counts three so-called sub-lineages with slightly different mutations and characteristics -as a "variant of concern".

It was therefore added to the list containing three other variants of Covid-19 -those first detected in Britain, Brazil and South Africa !