Indian doctors have identified a new strain of the coronavirus in West Bengal, said Vinod Skaria, an employee of the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology.

Located in the east of the country, West Bengal is bordered by five states in India, as well as Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal. 

According to the Indian health ministry, over the past day, 9,819 new cases of coronavirus were reported, and over 58,300 people are undergoing treatment for COVID.

B.1.618 is a novel SARS-CoV-2 lineage, primarily found in India, with a distinct set of genetic variants, including E484K, the primary variant of immune evasion, Scaria tweeted.

This is the second lineage of coronavirus to be identified from India, the first being B.1.617, also known as the double mutation variant of the coronavirus.