Viral news of Delta variant cases found in Prayagraj foxes health officials

PRAYAGRAJ: A news of detection of four new cases of coronavirus’s Delta variant in the city went viral on social media on Tuesday, putting the authorities of Moti Lal Nehru (MLN) Medical College on tenterhooks for several hours. It later turned out that the news was related to four old cases of the deadly variant confirmed in the city months back.
The medical college authorities later clarified that no new case of Delta variant has been detected in recent times in Sangam city.
“The state government on the basis of World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines and reports had asked health officials to conduct gene sequencing to find out discrepancy between Delta and Delta Plus variants of coronavirus during the peak of the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic and KGMU (Lucknow), BHU (Varanasi) and IGIB (Delhi) were authorised for the purpose,” principal of MLN Medical College Dr SP Singh told TOI on Tuesday.
He added, “After the detection of a few Delta Plus cases in Kerala and Maharashtra during the second wave, health authorities were asked to send samples of Covid positive patients to labs every fortnight. On May 16, the microbiology department of our medical college had sent 15 samples of Covid patients to KGMU, Lucknow but failed to get any report or response in absence of testing.”
“These samples were later sent to Delhi on May 20 but we again failed to get any response as no testing was conducted. On July 1, these samples were again sent to BHU and its delayed report was received by our microbiology department on July 31 in which four samples were found infected with the Delta variant,” he added.
“However, the patients who tested to be infected with the Delta variant in the BHU report, were already successfully treated in hospitals here and sent back to their homes during the second wave,” he clarified.
A senior health official, meanwhile, said, “There has been a constant decline in the number of Covid cases in the Sangam city and the recovery rate is also improving.”
He added, “Apart from rapid vaccination being conducted in the city, people must also wear masks and maintain social distancing to keep the virus away.”