New Delhi: Days after the Delta plus variant in India was announced as a variant of concern (VOC), the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Friday said that 48 cases infected by the Delta plus have been detected in 11 states till date and Maharastra alone has reported 20 cases of the new variant. The ICMR further said that it will take another 7 to 10 days to ascertain whether vaccines work against this new variant or not. The virus is being isolated and cultured at ICMR-NIV, said Dr Balram Bhargava, DG, ICMR.
Dr Bhargava was briefing the reporters on the emergence of new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in New Delhi. "The Delta plus variant has already been found in 12 countries and continuous monitoring of mutations are important to track virus escape, increase transmissibility and disease severity," Dr Bhargava said. He emphasised the need-based change in vaccine composition as per circulating VOC and variant of interest (VOI). "mRNA vaccines are easily modifiable and the whole virus inactivated vaccines can also be modified," he said.
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Referring to the effectiveness of Indian vaccines on different variants of Covid-19, Dr Bhargava said that both the vaccines (COVAXIN and COVISHIELD) work against the variants of SARS-CoV-2. Although the vaccine effectiveness on the new Delta plus variants is still under consideration. "Both India vaccines work against all four variants of concern including Alpha (B.1.1.7), Beta (B.1.351), Gamma (P.1) and Delta (B.1.1617.2)," said Dr Bhargava.
Referring to the Delta variant, Dr Bhargava said that the Delta variant with 15-17 mutations was first detected in October last year in Maharastra. "By February it is found that 60 per cent of the cases in Maharastra are due to Delta variants which later spread to 80 countries," he said. This delta variant increase transmissibility, stronger binding to receptors of lung cells, potential reduction in monoclonal antibody response and potential post-vaccination immune escape, the DG said.
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"The present B.1.617.2 plus or Delta plus variant has been found in different parts of India with 3 mutations," added Dr Bhargava. Following the emergence of the Delta plus variant in different states, Dr Bhargava emphasised public health interventions including cluster containment, isolation and treatment of cases, quarantine contacts and ramp up vaccination. Explaining further why does SARS-CoV-2 mutate, Dr Bhargava said that it is due to uninterrupted transmission and due to lack of Covid appropriate behaviour as well as due to immune pressure after treatment.
Meanwhile, Dr Surjeet Kumar Singh, Director, National Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) said that 90 per cent of the Covid cases in India are being driven by Delta (B.1.617.2) variant. "Before January 2021, the presence of Delta variant was 40 per cent and later on in May we have found 90 per cent presence of Delta variant in India," said Dr Singh. "Till December 2020, 1 district was affected with Delta variant which increase up to 52 districts in March and till June 174 districts across India have been affected by Delta variant," Dr Singh informed.
He said that the Alpha variant also played a big role in spreading infection between January to March. Dr Singh said that 21,109 variants of concern are found to be distributed in 174 districts in 35 states with the highest number are reported from districts in Maharastra, Delhi, Punjab, Telangana, West Bengal and Gujarat. Referring to the Indian SARS-COV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG), Dr Singh said that the consortium has detected 3,969 (Alpha), 149 (Beta), 1 (Gamma) and 16,238 (Delta-Kappa) variants of concern with public health importance.
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He said that after Maharastra, Delta plus variants has majorly found in Tamil Nadu (9 cases), Madhya Pradesh (7 cases), Kerala (3 cases), Punjab and Gujarat (2 cases each) and 1 case each has been found in Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir and Karnataka. "Out of the 45,000 samples being sequenced by INSACOG, 48 cases of Delta plus has been found till date," said Dr Singh.
He further said that to ensure effective surveillance of the variants, the government has further taken the community sample collection system to sentinel surveillance. "Under this sentinel surveillance system, we collect samples from labs, hospital, high transmission and low transmission areas and send it to the central surveillance unit," added Dr Singh.
