Published: May 11, 2021 By BioSpace Editorial Staff News information is not all-inclusive and updates are published once a week on Tuesdays. Here's a look at some of the top COVID-19 news over the past week. WHO Declares India’s Dual-Variant The World Health Organization (WHO) reclassified the so-called “double mutant” variant spreading in India as a “variant of concern,” which indicates it has become a global health threat. The variant is known as B.1.617 and appears to spread more easily than the wildtype Wuhan strain. Non-hospitalized COVID-19 Patients Have Low Risk of Serious Long-Term Effects A study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseasesfound that non-hospitalized COVID-19 patients are at low risk of serious long-term effects. However, the authors noted that “increases in visits to general practitioners and outpatient hospital visits could indicate COVID-19 sequelae.” The study was a population-based cohort investigation using patient and health insurance registries in Denmark.