India’s Deadly COVID-19 Surge May Be Tied to a New Variant

India is facing a daunting COVID-19 crisis with a huge increase in number of cases and deaths amid dwindling resources. Part of India’s pandemic problem may be due to the emergence of a new variant: B.1.617. This variant creates two mutations on the novel coronavirus’ spike, which is how the virus adheres to human cells.  The B.1.617 variant originated in India in 2020 but has now spread to more than 17 countries. Public health experts suspect that this variant transmits more easily than others, spreading quickly from person to person. There is hope that the Indian-developed vaccine Covaxin may be effective against the B.1.617 variant. Click here to read more.