Twenty-two cases of the new Delta Plus variant of the Covid-19 virus have been found in Maharashtra, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh. Sixteen of these cases have been found in Ratnagiri and Jalgaon districts of Maharashtra, Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said at a health ministry briefing on Tuesday.
Delta Plus remains a ‘variant of interest’ and has not yet become a ‘variant of concern’, Bhushan said. The Delta Plus variant has been found in nine more countries at present: United States, United Kingdom, Portugal, Switzerland, Japan, Poland, Nepal, China and Russia. The Delta variant is a ‘variant of concern’ and has spread to 80 countries.
The health ministry has advised the Maharashtra, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh governments to take up immediate containment measures, enhanced testing, tracking and vaccination in districts and clusters where the Delta Plus variant has been found. They have been asked to send adequate samples of positive patients to designated laboratories of INSACOG so that the clinical epidemiological correlations can be made, Bhushan said.
This was based on the recent findings of INSACOG. This variant has been found in genome sequenced samples from Ratnagiri and Jalgaon districts of Maharashtra, Palakkad and Pathanamthitta districts of Kerala, and in Madhya Pradesh’s Bhopal and Shivpuri districts. INSACOG has till date carried out sequencing of 45,000 samples.
INSACOG is a consortium of 28 laboratories of ministry of health & family welfare, department of biotechnology, Indian Council of Medical Research, and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research for whole genome sequencing in the context of Covid-19 pandemic. Apart from genome sequencing, INSACOG also has to give timely inputs on appropriate public health response measures to be adopted by states and union territories.
According to INSACOG, the Delta Plus variant is a currently a ‘variant of concern’, which means it could have increased transmissibility, is stronger in binding to receptors of lung cells and cause a potential reduction in monoclonal antibody response.
