After Mysuru, Delta Plus case reported in Bengaluru

A day after Karnataka’s first case of Delta Plus variant was reported in Mysuru, one other case was detected in Bengaluru on Wednesday.

Health and Medical Education Minister K. Sudhakar mentioned the data had been shared with the Union Health Ministry and the federal government was fastidiously monitoring the emergence of latest variants. Six extra genome labs could be arrange in the State.

The Bengaluru affected person is an 86-year-old resident of Ashok Nagar, who had signs of influenza like sickness (ILI). He had received one dose of COVID-19 vaccine when his pattern was collected in May and despatched to the genome sequencing lab in NIMHANS.

Meanwhile, Health officers in Mysuru are awaiting the outcomes of yet one more batch of samples despatched to NIMHANS for genome sequencing.

Dean and Director of Mysore Medical College and Research Institute (MMC&RI) Nanjaraj mentioned 40 samples had been despatched to NIMHANS final month in two batches. While the primary batch of 21 samples despatched in the primary week of May had reported one case of Delta Plus, the outcomes of the second batch of 19 samples despatched a few fortnight later are nonetheless awaited.

The youth, whose pattern had proven Delta Plus variant in genome sequencing, was asymptomatic and didn’t should bear hospitalisation.

Sources clarified that each the individuals discovered to have been contaminated with Delta Plus in Karnataka didn’t have any historical past of overseas journey. The new Delta Plus variant had been shaped as a result of a mutation in the extremely contagious Delta or B.1.617.2 variant, first recognized in India and one of many drivers of the second wave.

On its virulence

V. Ravi, nodal officer for genomic affirmation of SARS-CoV-2 in Karnataka, who additionally heads the State Genomic Surveillance Committee, mentioned there’s nonetheless no proof to indicate if Delta Plus was extra virulent and prompted a extreme type of illness.

“The only difference noted is that Delta Plus is resistant to the monoclonal antibody cocktail treatment for COVID-19 recently authorised in India,” he mentioned.

Asserting that accessible knowledge didn’t justify pointless considerations being raised over Delta Plus, Dr. Ravi mentioned if the variant was extra virulent than the variants detected beforehand, instances ought to have surged throughout districts in Karnataka by now as each the samples had been collected in May.

“We should not speculate on the severity and transmissibility of the new variant unless there is more data available. All new mutations replace the previous mutation and Delta Plus too may turn out to be a variant that can replace Delta,” he defined.

So far, a complete of 40 instances of Delta Plus variant had been detected in the nation.

Most of the infections have been reported from Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu. On Tuesday, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan wrote to chief secretaries of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Kerala asking them to take up speedy containment measures.