The World Health Organization said on Monday that a SARS-CoV-2 variant circulating in India is of global concern.
“We classify it as a variant of concern at a global level,” Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO technical lead on COVID, told a briefing. “There is some available information to suggest increased transmissibility.”
India’s daily COVID statistics are down slightly but remain high. The health ministry said Monday there were 366 161 new cases and 3754 deaths from the virus in the previous 24-hour period. Public health experts believe the new cases and deaths to be an underestimate of the true picture.
India has 22.6 million COVID cases so far, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. India’s case load is surpassed only by the US, with 32.7 million COVID cases.
There is also growing concern in India about ‘black fungus’ or mucormycosis, an opportunistic fungal infection which is affecting COVID patients and also those who have recovered from the disease. It typically only appears in immunocompromised patients. COVID patients with diabetes are particularly susceptible to mucormycosis, medical experts said.
Meanwhile, struggling to contain its own COVID outbreak, Nepal is running short of oxygen and oxygen tanks and has asked Mount Everest climbers and guides not to abandon their oxygen cylinders on the mountain, rather bringing them back down so that medical facilities can fill them to give to COVID patients.
Kul Bahadur Gurung, a senior official with the Nepal Mountaineering Association, told Reuters, “We appeal to climbers and Sherpas [Himalayan people living around Nepal and Tibet, well known for climbing mountains] to bring back their empty bottles wherever possible as they can be refilled and used for the treatment of the coronavirus patients who are in dire needs.”
A Nepal health ministry official speaking to Reuters said the country needs 25 000 oxygen tanks immediately.
Source: Voice of America
