No Delta Plus case reported in Delhi yet, no communication from Centre either: Jain

NEW DELHI:  Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Wednesday said the city has not reported any case of Delta Plus variant of Covid-19 so far and added that there was no communication from the Centre to make any special arrangement to deal with the strain.

He said a genome sequencing lab to detect the variants of coronavirus will become operational at Lok Nayak hospital within a week. Another such lab is being set up at the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS).

“There are several variants of coronavirus, but there are only two ways to protect yourself against it — get vaccinated and use masks. There is no separate communication from the Centre to make special preparations for the Delta Plus variant. Also, Delhi has not reported any such cases so far,” Jain told reporters.

He added that the Delhi government is in the process of increasing hospital beds to accommodate 37,000 cases a day in case of a possible third wave of the pandemic.

The Delhi government has already installed 32 pressure swing adsorption (PSA) oxygen generation plants with a total capacity of 29.77 metric tons (MT).

Three liquid medical oxygen storage tanks with a cumulative capacity of 171 MT have also been installed.

Jain also said the Covid situation is under control in Delhi but appealed to people to continue observing Covid-appropriate behaviour.

“The number of cases had reduced significantly in January and February, too, and people let their guards down. The experience of the last one-and-a-half-year shows one has to remain vigilant all the time,” he said.

The central government has warned against the Delta Plus variant, a new mutant version of the Delta strain of Covid first detected in India, and has called it a “variant of concern”.

This came just weeks after India started registering a dip in Covid-19 cases following a devastating second wave.