PremiumThe govt said that in the last four months, 86 Delta Plus cases have been detected in the country, which proves that this variant is not more virulent than the Delta variant
New Covid-19 mutants need to be tracked strictly as they have the capability to arise anywhere, said the central government on Tuesday. It informed that the government bodies are carefully monitoring Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Delta Plus variants.
Addressing media on the current Covid-19 situation in India, National Centre for Disease Control director Dr SK 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."
"We were doing two kinds of surveillance - to monitor variants of concern (coming from outside) and to monitor the impact of the Delta variant in the country. Today, we need to look for new mutants because they can reach anywhere any time," he added.
Further, Niti Aayog (health) member VK Paul said that in the last four months, 86 Delta Plus cases have been detected in the country, which proves that this variant is not more virulent than the Delta variant.
Paul said some new findings on Delta, on the other hand, reveals how strong and fast transmissible the variant is.
It also increases hospitalisation, he said. But as established by recent studies, India has vaccines that are effective against the Delta variant. "We are better placed against Delta," Paul said.
The government further said that the reproduction number, which denotes the spread of Covid-19, was more than one in five states -- Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
The increasing trend of reproduction number in some states is cause of concern, although there is stabilisation in Covid-19 cases in the country, it said, adding there are significant reasons to enforce pandemic control measures.
Further speaking about Kerala's Covid situation, Singh said, "Central Team was sent to Kerala. First, to see how the 'test-track-treat' strategy is being implemented, second, surveillance of containment zones with contact tracing being an important factor, the third infrastructure of hospitals and fourth progress of vaccination."
"The caseload and positivity trend was found to be more than 10. Some districts indicated an increasing trend of positivity rate - Malappuram, Kozhikode, Pathanamthitta. 80% of cases were found to be positive for Delta variant, like other states," he added.
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