New Delhi, Mar 18 A total of 76 samples of COVID-19's XBB.1.16 variant have been found which might be behind the recent rise of cases in the country, according to INSACOG data. The variant has been found across Karnataka (30), Maharashtra (29), Puducherry (7) Delhi (5), Telangana (2), Gujarat (1), Himachal Pradesh (1) and Odisha (1), the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) data showed. The XBB 1.16 variant was first found in January when two samples tested positive for the variant while in February a total of 59 samples were found.
