The coronavirus variant first detected in India has now been officially recorded in 53 territories, a World Health Organization (WHO) report said Wednesday. The WHO has received information from unofficial sources that the B.1.617 variant has been found in seven other territories, figures in the UN health agency’s weekly epidemiological update showed, taking the total to 60.

The report said Globally in the past weeks new cases and deaths continued to decrease, with around 4.1 million new cases and 84,000 new deaths reported a 14 per cent and 2 per cent decreased compared to the previous week.
The WHO’s European region reported the largest decrease in new cases and deaths in the past seven days, followed by the Southeast Asia region. The numbers of cases reported by the Americas, Eastern Mediterranean, Africa, and the Western Pacific region were similar to those reported in the previous week.

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“Despite a decreasing global trend over the past 4 weeks, Covid-19 cases and deaths remained high, and significant increases have been seen in many countries throughout the world,” the document said. The B.1.617 variant was officially recorded in a total of 60 territories. The update also listed six variants of interest that are being monitored. One was first discovered in multiple countries, two of them were first found in the United States, while the three others were first discovered in Brazil, the Philippines, and France. “Virus evolution is expected, and the more SARS-CoV-2 circulates, the more opportunities it has to evolve,” the report said.