Scientists and experts in France have reportedly discovered a new variant of COVID-19 which has 46 mutations.

Known as ‘IHU’, the B.1.640.2 variant has been reported by researchers at the institute IHU Mediterranee Infection in at least 12 cases and has been linked to travel to African country Cameroon.

However, the researchers noted that it is too early to speculate on how this variant behaves as far as the infection protection from vaccines is concerned.

So far, ‘IHU’ has not been reported in countries other than France and is not labelled as ‘variant under investigation’ by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

According to researchers, the first case was an adult diagnosed positive by PCR performed in a laboratory on a nasopharyngeal sample collected in mid-November last year.

Epidemiologist Eric Feigl-Ding posted on Twitter noting that although new variants will emerge, that in no way means they will be more dangerous.

“What makes a variant more well known and dangerous is its ability to multiply because of the number of mutations it has in relation to the original virus,” Feigl-Ding tweeted.

“This is when it becomes ‘variant of concern’ – like Omicron, which is more contagious and more past immunity evasive. It remains to be seen in which category this new variant will fall,” he added.

Meanwhile, many countries are currently experiencing a spike in COVID-19 cases driven by the Omicron variant which was first identified in South Africa and Botswana in November last year.

Since then, the variant of concern has now spread to over 100 countries.

In India, a total of 1,892 cases of omicron have been detected across 23 states and union territories thus far.