First cases of ‘double mutant’ Covid from India found in UK

Concerns have been raised over the infectiousness of the B.1.617 strain (Picture: Getty Images/AP)

A coronavirus variant from India with ‘concerning’ mutations has been found in the UK, health officials have said.

There have been 77 confirmed cases of the B.1.617 strain in the country so far — 73 in England and four in Scotland.

Some scientists have described the variant as a ‘double mutant’, because it carries two different mutations (E484Q and L452R).

Concerns have been raised that in combination, these two mutations make the strain more infectious and better at evading antibodies gained from prior infections or vaccinations.

It is not clear how the variant entered Britain, and it is now ‘under investigation’ along with six others in the UK.

While Brits are currently not allowed to travel overseas for non-essential reasons, India is not on the travel ‘red-list’.

If it was, anyone arriving in the UK from there would be required to quarantine in a designated hotel for 10 days.

A number of different variants from all over the world have been found in the UK (Picture: Metro.co.uk)

India is currently struggling to curb infections, with 200,000 cases recorded just yesterday (Picture: AP)

India has a population of 1.4billion people and recorded 200,000 infections and 1,038 fatalities yesterday, bringing its official Covid death toll to over 170,000.

More than 114 million people in the South Asian nation have received the jab so far.

Officials have said the B.1.617 mutation, has not been linked to a spike in cases in India.

But in the western state of Maharashtra, where the variant was first detected, it was found in some 61% of Covid samples screened by scientists.

Concerns have been raised over the B.1.617 strain carrying two mutations (Picture: Metro.co.uk)

Professor Christina Pagel, a member of the Independent Sage group of experts, said the discovery of the strain was concerning and said Boris Johnson should not head to Delhi as planned this month.

Upon hearing that 77 cases were in the UK, she tweeted: ‘That does NOT make going ok! You can’t transmit Covid by Zoom.’

Professor Pagel told the Guardian: ‘We don’t know yet whether it can escape existing vaccines but it has several concerning mutations.

‘It is ridiculous that India is not on the travel red list yet – or many other countries for that matter – when India is seeing 200,000 new cases every day at the moment.’

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