Indian variant driving catastrophic second wave: Top WHO scientist

However, Soumya Swaminathan insisted that the variant alone is not the only factor. The country may have let down its guard down with 'huge social mixing and large gatherings,' she says

Rapidly spreading Indian variant of SARS-CoV-2 (B.1.617) could be accelerating India's devastating second wave of the pandemic, the World Health Organization's top scientist said on Sunday.

India reported over 4,000 fatalities from the deadly disease for the second consecutive day and over 403,738 new cases of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours.

In an interview to news agency AFP, Soumya Swaminathan warned that "the epidemiological features that we see in India today do indicate that it's an extremely rapidly spreading variant."

Swmaninathan also said that B 1.617 is a variant of concern as it has some mutations which increase transmission,