India is facing a huge health crisis as a new "mutant" variant of coronavirus has overwhelmed hospitals in the country's largest cities.

The Telegraph's India correspondent Joe Wallen reports from the ground in Mumbai, one of the country's worst affected cities, where hospital beds are at full capacity and patients are being turned away.

The daily tally of cases has accelerated terrifyingly in recent weeks, hitting a record 273,810 infections on Monday, up ten-fold in little over a month.

A new, more transmissible “double mutant” variant is feared to be behind the giddying surge in cases. India has little data on the new strain, but early analysis suggests its mutations make it both more transmissible and able to re-infect patients.

Read the full story here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/india-will-offer-coronavirus-vaccine-citizens-age-18-may/

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