India Doesn’t Want Name Attached to Virus Variant

The Indian Government has taken exception to describing one of the variant of the coronavirus as the Indian Variant.

A statement issued on Wednesday by the Press Information Bureau of the Government of India with heading: “WHO has not associated the term ‘Indian Variant’ with B.1.617, now classified as Variant of Concern,” said to name the variant as Indian was wrong.

The statement read: “Several media reports have covered the news of World Health Organisation (WHO) classifying B.1.617 as variant of global concern.

“Some of the reports have termed the B.1.617 variant of the coronavirus as an “Indian Variant.”

It described such media reports as having no basis and as such unfounded.

It added that: “This is to classify that WHO has not associated the term “Indian Variant” with the B.1.617 variant of the coronavirus on its 32 page document.”

It said: “In fact, the word “Indian” has not been used in its report on the matter.

It also said India’s recovery rate of 83.26% & 177 million vaccinations are among the highest, and mortality rate of 1.09% is among the lowest in the world.

Michael Olugbode in Abuja

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