Corona Alert – Delta Plus Variant Surfaces in Punjab, 2 Cases Reported
Delta plus variant – a mutated version of the more aggressive Delta strain, which fueled the second COVID wave in India, has surfaced in Punjab.
In what may come across as an early invite to the third wave of coronavirus in Punjab, the state reported its first cases of the highly transmissible Delta Plus variant.
On Friday, two cases of the dreaded variant were found in Punjab’s Ludhiana and Patiala districts. The state has thus been advised to take immediate containment measures like ‘preventing crowds’ and ‘intermingling of people’, conduct widespread testing, and increase vaccine coverage on priority. The measures were suggested by the Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan in a letter to the Chief Secretary of Punjab.
Besides Punjab, a similar presence of the Delta Plus variant has surfaced in nearing states of Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir. In all, on Friday, 51 Delta Plus cases were reported in 12 states across India. Maharashtra reported 22 cases, the maximum number of cases of the variant reported so far.
These cases have been reported in a total of 45,000 samples tested so far based on genome sequencing technique purported by the Indian SARS-CoV2-Genomics Consortium (INSACOG).
