A new coronavirus variant is wreaking havoc in the New York City. It carries a worrisome mutation that may weaken the effectiveness of vaccines.

As per the research by two teams, the new corona variant --B.1.526 -- first appeared in samples collected in New York in November. However, by the middle of February. The experts have said that it appears in people affected in diverse neighbourhoods of New York City, they said, and is "scattered in the Northeast".  He said, "We observed a steady increase in the detection rate from late December to mid-February, with an alarming rise to 12.7 per cent in the past two weeks."

 Dr David Ho, director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, said, "We see cases in Westchester, in the Bronx and Queens, the lower part of Manhattan and in Brooklyn...So it seems to be widespread. It's not a single outbreak."He further added that the New York variant is more worrisome than the one that is spreading rapidly in California.

Meanwhile, according to Johns Hopkins University,  The total number of global Covid-19 cases has topped 112.5 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 2.49 million.

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