Nitin Jain

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, August 22

The highly transmissible Delta variant of Covid has been spreading fast in Punjab and continues to be the most dominant variant in the state.

The United Kingdom’s Alpha variant has disappeared after dominating the state till March.

As per official figures, 96 per cent of the total Covid samples processed for whole genome sequencing (WGS) in July have tested positive for the Delta variant (B.1.617). However, no fresh case of Delta Plus variant (B.1.617.2), which is more virulent in nature, has been reported in the state.

Till now, the state has recorded only two Delta Plus cases – one each in Ludhiana and Patiala districts. The cases were registered in June.

Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan, who reviewed the Covid situation here recently, said a new genome sequencing laboratory had started functioning in Patiala for early identification of new Covid variants and it was emerging as a key component in the fight against the pandemic.

“All eight samples tested as a trial run have been found positive for Delta,” Mahajan had said, adding that the process was underway for the inclusion of the lab in the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium of Genomics (INSACOG).

“The lab will test 92 samples every three weeks from August 14 onwards,” she had informed.

The data analysed by the Health and Family Welfare Department, which is available with The Tribune, showed that a total of 2,215 Covid samples had been processed for the WGS between January and July. Of these, 2,081 (93.95%) tested positive for the Delta virus – the variant of concern (VoC).

The month-wise break-up suggested that all the 25 samples processed in July tested positive for the VoCs. Of these, 24 tested positive for Delta (96 per cent), while a single sample was found to be of B.1.36 variant.

In June, 227 samples were processed, of which 211 (92.9 per cent) tested positive for the VoCs. Of these, 201 samples (95.2 per cent) tested positive for Delta, four for B.1 (1.9 per cent), two for A (0.9 per cent). One sample each tested positive for Alpha and B.

In May, 617 or 94.9 per cent of the total 650 samples tested positive for the VoCs. Of these, 547 cases (88.6 per cent) were of Delta, followed by 41 cases of B.1 (6.6 per cent), 23 cases of Alpha (3.7 per cent), and two cases were of AY.1 variant (0.3 per cent).

In April, 463 (93.9 per cent) of 493 WGS samples had tested positive for the VoCs. Of these, 209 cases (45.1 per cent) tested positive for Delta, 191 cases (41.2 per cent) for Alpha, and 53 cases (11.4 per cent) for B.1.

In March, of the 748 samples, 717 (95.9 per cent) tested positive for the VoCs. Of these, 680 (94.8 per cent) had tested positive for Alpha, four (0.5 per cent) for Delta and two (0.3 per cent) for Beta. One case each of B.1, B.1.36, and B.1.525, besides 27 cases of other mutations were also found among the samples.

In February, all the 24 WGS samples tested positive for the VoCs. Of these, 17 cases (70.8 per cent) had tested positive for Alpha and seven cases (29.2 per cent) for other mutations.

In January, 24 of the total 48 samples processed for WGS had tested positive for the VoCs. Of these, seven cases (29.2 per cent) were of B.1, four cases (16.7 per cent) of B.1.36, two cases each of Alpha and B.1.258.14, and once each of B, A, B.1.36.19, B.1.36.8, B.1.459, B.1.465, B.1.596, B.1.1, and B.1.216.