With poor data on variants, India's Covid surge remains a mystery

India reported more than 115,000 new daily infections on Wednesday, taking its tally of cases to 12.8 million, behind Brazil and the US

India’s failure to quickly examine Covid-19 samples for new variants risks hurting its battle against a record surge of infections, with scientists warning the delays could damage everything from vaccine efficacy to effective hospital treatments.

The South Asian nation has tested less than 1 per cent of its positive samples, according to government data, compared to the UK which has sequenced 8 per cent of infections, and 33 per cent in the last week, the Covid-19 Genomics UK Consortium said. The US last month reported it was sequencing about 4 per cent of its 400,000 weekly new cases, the Centers for