New Delhi: Rajarshi Kalita, renowned Assamese writer Arupa Kalita Patangia's son, has succumbed to
COVID-19 at the age of 41 in Delhi on Wednesday evening. He was under treatment at a private hospital. He is survived by his wife and a son.
He was a Professor at Shyam Lal College under Delhi University.
According to a health bulletin issued by the Delhi government, the capital recorded 20,960 new cases on Wednesday from 79,491 tests conducted in 24 hours.
India reported more than 20 million cases of the COVID-19 virus during the pandemic, the second country after the United States to have crossed the grim milestone. While it took more than 10 months for India to add the first 10 million cases of the novel coronavirus, it took only four months to add another 10 million cases to its tally, more than double the pace of infection which gives us an alarming indication of how fast the virus is spreading.
There are reports of a new mutation of the novel coronavirus, called the N440K variant or the AP variant, in reference to the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh where the virus was first traced. Reports say that this new mutant variant has already spread beyond the state of Andhra Pradesh.
Read moreIt has been found in 20 to 30% of the samples tested in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana. As per the initial observation, this new N440K variant is said to be 15 times more 'virulent' than the earlier mutations meaning it spreads faster, has a shorter incubation period and the infection spreads much more rapidly within the human body. More studies are being conducted to confirm these findings.
