Express News Service
NEW DELHI: The Centre on Tuesday issued advisories to three states — Maharashtra, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh — where the delta plus variant of the COVID-19 virus has been detected, asking them to strictly isolate these cases and keep a watch if clusters of cases emerge in areas with this strain.
This variant, identified in nine countries so far, is yet to be classified as one of concern but has raised worries over indications that it is resistant to monoclonal antibodies and is suspected to also be resistant to existing COVID vaccines though it is yet to be established.
Rajesh Bhushan, the Union health secretary, said in a briefing on Tuesday that so far 22 cases of the variant have been identified in India after genome sequencing, 16 of which are in two districts in Maharashtra while some isolated cases have also been detected in Kerala and Madhya Pradesh.
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The delta plus variant so far has also been found in the US, UK, Portugal, Switzerland, Japan, Poland, China and Russia, apart from India.
However, the delta variant, which was largely responsible for the second COVID wave in India, has been detected in 80 countries, Bhushan said, adding that Indian vaccines, both Covishield and Covaxin, are effective against it.
“But to what extent and what’s the proportion of antibody titers that they produce, that we would share with you shortly,” he added.
Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope on Monday on the other hand had said that in the state, so far nine cases of the delta plus variant were reported in Ratnagiri, followed by seven in Jalgaon, two in Mumbai and one each in Palghar, Thane and Sindhudurg districts.
Scientists associated with INSACOG — the government’s genomic surveillance project for COVID-19 — explained that 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.
“Though there is no indication yet of the severity of the disease due to the new variant, delta plus seems resistant to the monoclonal antibody cocktail treatment for COVID-19 recently authorized in India and it is causing a lot of anxiety,” said an expert.