NEW DELHI — India's health ministry said on Wednesday that a novel variant of the coronavirus had been detected in the country in addition to many other variants of concern (VOCs) also found abroad.

The new mutant variant was discovered by the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics (INSACOG) which has been carrying out genome sequencing on domestic samples and samples from international travelers.

"Since INSACOG initiated its work, 771 variants of concerns (VOCs) have been detected in a total of 10787 positive samples shared by states/union territories. These include 736 samples positive for viruses of the UK (B.1.1.7) lineage. 34 samples were found positive for viruses of the South African (B.1.351) lineage. 1 sample was found positive for viruses of the Brazilian (P.1) lineage. The samples with these VOCs have been identified in 18 states of the countries," the health ministry said.

INSACOG) is a grouping of 10 national laboratories that was established by the federal health ministry on Dec. 25, 2020. INSACOG is since then carrying out genomic sequencing and analysis of circulating COVID-19 viruses, and correlating epidemiological trends with genomic variants. Genomic variants of various viruses are a natural phenomenon and are found in almost all countries.

Genome sequencing and analysis have been carried out on samples from arriving international travelers, contacts of those positive for VOC, and community samples from most of the states at INSACOG partner laboratories which are 10 in number. — Agencies