India reported 1,84,372 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, setting another grim one-day record, taking the overall tally to 13,87,825 on Wednesday, according to the data issued by the Union Health Ministry. The crowds at election rallies and religious gatherings are not thinning and the daily growth of infections and active cases are also growing consistently. India is also grappling with various variants of the coronavirus: the UK variant, South Africa variant, Brazil variant and the double-mutant, which combines mutations from two separate virus variants, found in samples from Maharashtra, Delhi and Punjab. The double-mutant has been classified as B.1.617 lineage, was found in 15-20 per cent samples in Maharashtra. In the backdrop of steep rises in cases, the government has allowed faster access to foreign-made vaccines by doing away with bridging trial studies prior to grant of emergency authorization.
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