51 cases of Delta Plus variant detected across 12 states, Maha has maximum: Govt

Fiftyone cases of Delta Plus variant of the coronavirus have been detected across 12 states in the country with Maharashtra reporting the highest number of 22 the Centre said on Friday stressing that there are still very limited cases of this mutation and it cannot be inferred that it is showing an upward trendThese 51 cases were detected from over 45000 samples sequenced so far in the countrySujeet Singh Director of the National Centre for Disease Control NCDC said 22 cases of Delta Plus variant have been found in Maharashtra followed by nine in Tamil Nadu seven in Madhya Pradesh three in Kerala two each in Punjab and Gujarat and one case each in Andhra Pradesh Odisha Rajasthan Jammu and Kashmir Haryana and KarnatakaThere are very limited number of cases of this mutation Delta Plus In India there are very limited cases of Delta Plus There are nearly 50 cases that are found in 12 districts and this has happened in the last three months It cannot be said that in any district state it is showing an increasing trend Till the time we dont correlate this we will not say this is a rising trend because its mutations are the same as Delta variant Singh told a media briefing of the health ministryThere was some variance in the figures in the slides presented at the briefing but officials confirmed later that the total cases of the Delta Plus variant detected so far stands at 51 across 12 statesAlso Read80yearold Ratnagiri woman first in Maharashtra to die of Delta Plus variantSo the transmission potential in the Delta variant can also found in the Delta Plus variant he addedThe NCDC is among the 10 institutes involved in genome sequencing of the coronavirus in the countrySingh said the Delta Plus variant signifies the Delta variant with an additional mutation B161721 This specifically refers to acquisition of K417N genetic variant in the background of Variant of Concern VoC Delta B16172He said K417N is of public significance as this mutation is also present in the Variant of Concern Beta B1351He said the Delta Plus variant is denoted by a plus sign This does not meanthat severity of transmission is more or lead to more severe disease If scientific evidence does suggest that then we will definitely let you know he saidSingh added that since the Delta variant is already a VoC its sublineage can also be called a VoCTalking about Delta Plus variant Indian Council of Medical Research ICMR Director General Balaram Bhargava said it is present now in 12 countries and in India it has been found in 12 states but they are very localisedDelta Plus variant has also been isolated and cultured at ICMRNIV and laboratory tests to check vaccine effect on Delta Plus variant We should have these results in 710 days time whether the vaccine is working against the Delta plus he addedSingh said Andhra Pradesh Delhi Haryana Kerala Maharashtra Punjab Telangana and West Bengal have Delta variant in more than 50 per cent of the samples sequencedAfter that we came to a conclusion that exponential surge during the second wave was to a large extent driven by this variant Ninety per cent of the cases of the samples sequenced are being driven by B16172 Delta variant of SARSCoV2 he saidHe said coronavirus variants of concern have been found in 174 districts in 35 states and union territories with the highest number of such cases seen in Maharashtra Delhi Punjab Telangana West Bengal and GujaratThe proportion of Covid19 cases with variants of concern rose from 1031 per cent in May 2021 to 51 per cent on June 20 2021 he addedBharghav also asserted that both the Covid19 vaccines Covishield and Covaxin work against SARSCoV2 variants like Alpha Beta Gamma and DeltaHe added that the second wave of Covid19 is not yet over in the country as 75 districts still have more than 10 per cent prevalence and 92 districts have 510 per cent prevalence of the coronavirusThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever