First case of Indian coronavirus variant found in United States

One case of a new COVID-19 variant first detected in India has now been found in the United States. Spotted first by researchers at Stanford University, the variant was found in Northern California.

The variant in question has two mutations - one similar to the variation found in the strain from California which was spotted in the spiky protein which the virus attaches itself to.

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The Indian variant was found in a patient from the San Francisco Bay Area by Stanford's Clinical Virology Laboratory, as reported by NBC, citing a spokesperson from Stanford. This marks the first case of the variant in the United States.

The variant was first detected last month by Indian health officials. India had witnessed a slowdown of the spread of COVID-19 in the last few months of 2020. But in March 2021, cases continued to rise across the country, nearing 100,000 daily infections in April.

Cases in California are currently declining after witnessing a surge in the winter months due to which cases increased in November running into the new year.

This relief in terms of numbers has prompted California authorities to begin reopening parts of the state, starting with its most populous county in Los Angeles.

Even then, California is the hardest-hit state in the US, recording more than 3.5 million known infections and 58,000 deaths, as per data from California's health department.