The govt has objected to the labelling of the B.1.617 Covid variant as an "Indian variant". The central govt has stressed that word "Indian" was never used by the World Health Organisation.
"This is to clarify that WHO has not associated the term 'Indian Variant' with the B.1.617 variant of the coronavirus in its 32-page document. In fact, the word "Indian" has not been used in its report on the matter," said the government statement.
The WHO on Tuesday said that the B.1.617 variant of Covid, first found in India last October, has "increased transmissibility" or spreads more quickly. According to the WHO, tt has been found in 40 countries.
The B.1.617 strain is called a double mutant because of the presence of two changes in the virus's genome, called E484Q and L452R.