26 April 2020 9:19 PM ISTThe high COVID-19 mortality rate in Gujarat could be due to the dominance of the L-type strain of coronavirus, found to have been more prevalent in Wuhan in China, where the outbreak started, experts said.
The dominance of the more virulent L-type coronavirus strain as compared to the S-type one could be behind the high mortality rate in the state, which has reported 133 deaths so far. However, no research has been conducted to confirm this, they said.
A scientist at the state-run Gujarat Biotechnology Research Centre (GBRC) said that the novel coronavirus used for genome sequencing recently conducted by it was found to contain the L-type strain.