Coronavirus News LIVE Updates: A new “double mutant variant” of the coronavirus has been detected in 18 states in the country in addition to many other strains or variants of concern (VOCs) also found abroad, the Health Ministry said today. “Though VOCs and a new double mutant variant have been found in India, these have not been detected in numbers sufficient to either establish a direct relationship or explain the rapid increase in cases in some States,” the ministry said.

The BMC is planning to increase the number of beds at Covid centres in the next two weeks to prepare for the “worst case scenario” even as the authorities claimed there was no need to panic. According to the BMC, there has been an increase in the occupancy of beds, which saw a jump from February to March. It has been decided to increase beds to 18,000 from the current 14,000 in dedicated Covid hospitals and dedicated Covid health centres. Also, beds will be increased from the current 25,000 to 50,000 in Covid care centres.

The Covid-19 situation in 19 districts of West Bengal is “quite grim” with a steady rise in infections in these places, according to an internal survey conducted by the state’s health department. The infection rate has increased from 1.35 per cent to 1.78 per cent between March 15 and March 21. There are 19 districts on the list marked as red, a source said. Kolkata’s infection rate rose to 3.04 per cent from 2.09 per cent during the reporting period, the survey showed. Meanwhile, the state reported 404 fresh cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, pushing the tally to 5,81,403, the department said. The death toll mounted to 10,310 with two more fatalities. West Bengal now has 3,656 active cases, it said, adding 89,92,906 samples have been tested for coronavirus so far.