Religious, Political Mass Gatherings Added To Covid Case Surge In India: WHO

WHO also stated that B.1.617 variant were first reported in India in October 2020.

Representational Image

New Delhi: In its Weekly Epidemiological Update, the World Health Organization listed various contributing factors for the Covid surge in India including "several religious and political mass gathering events which increased social mixing".

WHO also stated that B.1.617 variant were first reported in India in October 2020.

"The resurgence in COVID-19 cases and deaths in India has raised questions on the potential role of B.1.617 and other variants (e.g., B.1.1.7) in circulation," the update said.

"A recent risk assessment of the situation in India conducted by WHO found that resurgence and acceleration of COVID-19 transmission in India had several potential contributing factors, including increase in the proportion of cases of SARS-CoV-2 variants with potentially increased transmissibility; several religious and political mass gathering events which increased social mixing; and, under use of and reduced adherence to public health and social measures (PHSM). The exact contributions of these each of these factors on increased transmission in India are not well understood," it said.

On Wednesday, Government of India issued a clarification stating that WHO has not associated the term “Indian Variant” with the B.1.617 variant of the coronavirus in its 32 page document. The GOI statement came after several reports were published recently about how B.1.617 variant was found in almost 44 countries. The B.1.617 variant is considered responsible for the devastating second wave in India.

The WHO update said that "the prevalence of several VOCs including B.1.1.7 and B.1.612 sublineages increased concurrent to the surge in COVID-19 cases reported in India."

Earlier this week, the World Health Organization classified the B.1.617 variant spreading in India as "of concern". WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan in an exclusive interview with the news agency ANI said that the country's spread "worrying" and called on the government to report actual numbers.