4 cases of Covid’s SA variant, one of Brazil found in India: ICMR

New Delhi, Feb 16 : The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has found a total of 192 Covid-19 cases of the new variants of mutated SARS-CoV-2 in last two months, including four from the variant emerging in South Africa and one from the Brazilian variant, officials said on Tuesday.
The remaining cases are all of the UK variant.
ICMR Director General, Prof Balram Bhargava, however, noted that no mortality has been reported so far in the cases who contracted the UK variant as well as those who are infected by the variants from South Africa and Brazil.
About the SA variant, better known as B.1.351, Bharagava said that its cases were reported in January in four returnees from African countries.
“One case was found in a person who returned from Angola, one from Tanzania and rest from persons who returned from South Africa,” he said.
Bhargava added that that this variant has spread to 44 countries and the National Institute of Virology, Pune is attempting to isolate and culture the variant.