New IHU of COVID-19 Variant Found in France
A new strain of coronavirus—IHU (B.1.640.2)—has been discovered in France that is more infectious than Omicron.
Globally, over 292 million COVID-19 cases have been reported since the pandemic began, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has reported the most, followed by India and Brazil. Over 5.4 million people died globally due to COVID-19. Now Dr NK Arora heads the Indian central government's task force on COVID-19 vaccination. On 4 January 2022, he said, the huge surge in the number of coronavirus cases over the last week indicates a third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in India. He said that 50% of fresh cases in major Indian cities are being driven by the new Omicron variant. Meanwhile, according to a study by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur, the third wave of COVID-19 infections in India may peak by 3 February 2022. But experts are hopeful a large chunk of new cases will be mild or asymptomatic.
France has reported a new covid variant IHU or B.1.640.2 and it is more infectious than Omicron. This has been reported by researchers at institute IHU Mediterranee Infection in at least 12 cases and has been linked to travel to African country Cameroon. It has not been reported in any other country yet and has been labelled as a variant under investigation by the World Health Organization (WHO). Countries across the world have imposed fresh restrictions to prevent the spread of the virus.
