INDORE: Indore district has reported first two cases of Delta plus variant of Coronavirus, which of concern in a genome sequencing report released from National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), on Tuesday.
The delta plus variant was reported in samples sent in first week of July. The first positive report is of a 42-year-old woman, a resident of Gajraj Nagar. The sample was sent on July 7 for genome sequencing. The second is of a 25-year-old woman of Aerodrome area.
Confirming detection of two delta plus variant cases in district, MGMMC dean Dr Sanjay Dixit said, “Two cases of Delta plus variant have been reported in district on Tuesday. The reports are of samples sent to NCDC for genome sequencing in July.”
Delta plus is a mutation of the delta variant called K417N in spike protein carried by variants AY.1 and AY.2 of it and has been classified as a variant of concern by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The Delta variant was largely responsible for the second wave of pandemic in the country.
Other than Delta plus variant, the district till mid-August reported 161 cases of variant of concerns, including 101 of Delta (B.1.617.2), succeeded by 46 of UK variant — Alpha ((B.l.1.7), Beta (B.1.351) and one sub-variant of Alpha.
In Indore district, the first case of Alpha variant was reported in March this year. Since then, the authority has increased surveillance in the district in accordance with guidelines received from state health authority.
The first three samples were sent for genome sequencing on December 28 last year from the district. Since then, over 1000 samples were sent to NCDC for testing with the last lot of 15 samples sent on August 15.
In Madhya Pradesh, around one dozen cases of Delta plus variants from districts including, Bhopal, Ujjain, Raisen, Ashok Nagar and Datia, have been reported so far. Also, at least one death of a person infected with Delta plus variant was reported from Ujjain. The person who died due to Delta plus variant was not vaccinated with any dose of Covid-19 vaccine.
