- One variant or three? -The name "Indian variant" describes a strain -- B.1.617 -- that in fact groups together three distinct subvariants sharing some, but not all, of several mutations.Two of the three have been detected in dozens of countries around the world, while the third has not spread much beyond India.The WHO said on Tuesday that although there "may be important differences among the three sublineages", there is currently not enough evidence to tease out individual classifications, so it grouped them together as a single "variant of concern".- More transmissible? -In India, where the number of officially-recorded Covid-19 deaths has passed a quarter of a million, there are suspicions that this new variant may have accelerated the.