The sample of a 32-year-old woman, who had tested positive for COVID-19 in May and recovered, has returned positive for the “Delta Plus” variant of the coronavirus, health officials have confirmed.
The patient, a resident of Chennai, was working as a staff nurse at a private hospital. Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan said the patient tested positive for COVID-19 on May 4. She had mild illness and was advised home isolation. She was tested again on May 15 and her results returned negative.
Her sample, which was sent for whole genome sequencing, returned positive for the “Delta Plus” variant of SARS-CoV-2. Her contacts at the workplace and family did not have any illness and were found to be negative for COVID-19.
To identify variants of SARS-CoV-2 in Tamil Nadu, COVID-19 samples from all districts since December 2020 were referred to InSTEM in Bengaluru for Whole Genome Sequencing. So far, 1,159 samples have been sent to InStem, Bengaluru, for genomic sequencing. Results of 772 have been received.
Of these, the delta variant (B.1.617.2) was reported in 72% — 556 samples. This was found to be the most common, followed by the Alpha (B.1.1.7) variant in 65 samples (8.4%). One Delta Plus variant was reported among the 556 Delta strains.
