Yesterday, the government sent a warning to Maharashtra, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh on Delta Plus cases found there and urged “immediate containment measures”. According to the letter, Delta Plus cases have been found in Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri and Jalgaon; in Palakkad and Pathanamthitta in Kerala; and in Bhopal and Shivpuri in Madhya Pradesh.
A four-year-old is among those infected in Kerala.
“As of now among the samples sequenced (45,000+) in India, Delta plus variant — AY.1 –has been observed sporadically in Maharashtra, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh, with around 40 cases identified so far and no significant increase in prevalence,” the ministry said in its statement.
Sources say that cases of the new strain, a mutation of the Delta strain or B.1.617.2 variant first detected in India, are not confined to these states.
Delta Plus cases, still low in numbers, are emerging as large parts of India are ending severe lockdowns and restrictions with Covid cases on the decline after a fierce second wave ambushed the nation’s health infrastructure in April-May, “Currently the number of such Delta plus variants in India are only few but the distribution/detection in various states during past two months indicate that it is already present in some states and states may need to enhance their public health response by focusing on surveillance, enhanced testing, quick contact-tracing and priority vaccination,” it says.
The government said while the two vaccines being used in India, Serum Institute of India’s Covishield and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, are effective against the Delta variant, data on how they work on the Delta Plus would be shared later.
