Why are there 2 instances of each app on my phone? I must have done something while I set up my Lenovo K6 (android 7.0) because I see 2 instances of each app one of which has a small blue icon on the bottom  right. I also have 2 instances of Google Playstore and several system apps (see photo below). 

I went to settings-->accounts and I found that I had created 2 personal accounts with the same email, one of which had all these apps with the strange icons under it. I proceeded to delete that account but these strange instances of the apps seem to still be there.

What are these duplicate apps and how do I get rid of them?
This seems to be dual app feature of Lenovo and some Xiaomi phones

This enables dual SIM phones to run two instances of an app say WhatsApp and the second instance has an icon as described in the question

You need to go to settings and disable that - Settings &rarr; Feature &rarr; Dual App Profile (this may not be the exact path depending on OS version but search in settings for dual app)