“This [AY.1] was first identified in March in Europe but brought into the public domain only two days ago,” said V.K.

Paul, Chairman, National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration of COVID-19, at a press conference.

As The Hindu reported on Monday, five Indian laboratories submitted data on this variant in May and June to GISAID, a global repository.

body, said of the 63 genomes in the GISAID repository as of June 7, six were from India.

Paul said that while the continued mutation of the coronavirus was a biological fact, the steps to protect against exposure remained the same — “not giving opportunities to the virus to spread.”.

Paul said reserves of the Novavax vaccine had come to India on Monday, and are likely be produced domestically in “very large” quantities”.

Also read: Coronavirus | Indian ‘double mutant’ strain named B.1.617.

Earlier in June, the Drugs Controller General of India had given permission to SII to go ahead with the Phase 2/3 trials of the vaccine that will be branded as “Covavax” in India