PremiumAccording to Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan, 16 of the 22 cases of Delta Plus variant have been found in Maharashtra, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh
The central government on Tuesday informed that 2 cases of the Delta Plus variant have been found in the country, so far. According to Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan, 16 of the 22 cases have been found in Ratnagiri and Jalgaon (Maharashtra) and some cases in Kerala and Madhya Pradesh.
In a media statement, Bhushan said the Delta Plus variant has also been found in -US, UK, Portugal, Switzerland, Japan, Poland, Nepal, China, and Russia. However, the Delta variant has been detected in 80 countries, he added.
The union health secretary further claimed that Indian vaccines, both Covishield and Covaxin are effective against the Delta variant. "But to what extent & what's the proportion of antibody titers that they produce, that we would share with you shortly," he added.
However, yesterday Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope said the state detected 21 cases of the highly infectious Delta Plus variant of Covid-19.
The highest nine cases were reported in Ratnagiri, followed by seven in Jalgaon, two in Mumbai, and one case each in Palghar, Thane and Sindhudurg districts, Tope said yesterday.
Recently, World Health Organisation (WHO) Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan said that the Delta variant is "well on its way" to becoming the dominant variant globally.
The new Delta plus variant has been formed due to a mutation in the Delta or B.1.617.2 variant, first identified in India and one of the drivers of the deadly second wave. Though there is no indication yet of the severity of the disease due to the new variant, Delta plus is reportedly resistant to the monoclonal antibody cocktail treatment for COVID-19 recently authorised in India.
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