Bhubaneswar, Aug. 15 -- Bhubaneswar: A team of genomic researchers from two institutes has identified 73 novel variants of the COVID-19 strain in Odisha, its head has said.

The researchers are from CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), New Delhi and Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital, Bhubaneswar, he said.

"The research team, which carried out sequencing of 1,536 samples including 752 clinical samples, reported two lineages - B.1.112 and B.1.99 - for the first time in India," Dr Jayashankar Das, lead investigator and director (research) of the IMS and SUM Hospital, said on Friday.

If one gets to know the detailed character of the novel coronavirus, it will be very easy to treat patients and cure them, h...