Delta Plus variant didn’t cause exponential surge, only 86 cases recorded so far: Govt

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, Aug 10, 2021: The Delta Plus variant of the virus causing Covid-19 did not result in any exponential surge in cases in India, the central government said Tuesday, adding that the country has recorded only 86 cases of this variant till date.

 

Addressing the health ministry’s press briefing on Covid-19, Dr SK Singh, Director, National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said unlike the Delta variant, the Delta Plus variant did not result in any exponential surge in Covid-19 cases.

"The Delta variant caused more damage till the end of May and led to a rise in Covid-19 cases. Back then, nearly 90 per cent of the strains in circulation were of the Delta variant," Dr Singh said.

Niti Aayog member (health) Dr VK Paul, also present at the briefing said, "The Delta variant is ruling the world today."

37 DISTRICTS REPORTING INCREASING TREND: GOVT

Meanwhile, the health ministry cautioned that 37 districts in the country are still reporting an increasing daily trend in Covid-19 cases.

Joint Secretary (health) Luv Agarwal said while the overall case positivity rate has come down considerably, it is still high in some parts. "We need to contain it...districts in 11 states currently have a high positivity rate and most of these districts are in Kerala (i.e. more than 10 per cent)...Northeastern states too are reporting high positivity rate."

Positivity rate is the percentage of samples that test positive for a disease out of the total samples tested. A high positivity rate indicates greater spread of the disease.

277 SITES IDENTIFIED FOR GENOME SEQUENCING

The government said it has also identified 277 sentinel sites for genome sequencing in India. This is expected to facilitate early detection of new mutations of coronavirus in the country. As per government figures, 58,240 samples have been genome sequenced in India so far.

Speaking about the sentinel sites, Dr SK Singh said the WHO has come out with a strategy that the sentinel sites need to be identified and representative samples from every district of every state should be genome sequenced.

"It should be tested if there is any mutant that will cause a public impact in the time to come," he said.
Sentinel sites were affixed across the country and all states were asked to identify a minimum of five labs and five tertiary care hospitals, and see if the sentinel sites represented samples of a representative district.

Explaining the current strategy, Dr Singh said, "The variants of concern that we monitor are Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Delta Plus. There are two variants under investigation - Kappa and B1617.3."

He added that NCDC is doing two types of surveillance: To monitor variants of concern (coming from outside), and to monitor impact of Delta variant in the country.

"Today, we need to look for new mutants because they can reach anywhere any time," he said.

Courtesy:India Today