INSACOG detects 22 Delta plus variants of Covid19 in India: Health Secretary

Amid anticipation of the third wave of Covid-19 pandemic, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhusan on Tuesday said that 22 Delta plus variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus have been found in three States in India.

New Delhi: Amid anticipation of the third wave of Covid-19 pandemic, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhusan on Tuesday said that 22 Delta+ variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus have been found in three States in India. "Till date 22 cases of Delta+ variant has been found in India. 16 cases have been found in Ratnagiri and Jalgaon and remaining cases have been found in Kerala and Madhya Pradesh," Rajesh Bhushan said while talking to the reporters in New Delhi. Health Secretary Rajesh Bhusan added that his ministry has issued a guideline to these three states on public health response.

"We don't want to find the cases of Delta+ in significant numbers. And that is why we have issued guidelines to Maharastra, Kerala, and Madhya Pradesh to control the situation," added Bhushan. He said that India's genomic sequencing consortium, Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomic Consortia (INSACOG) till date has conducted genomic sequencing of 45,000 samples "out of which 22 cases are found to be of Delta+ variant." "After we received the details correlating the data, we issued an advisory to the concerned State Governments for taking action," said Bhushan.

Apart from India, the Delta plus variant is presently found in nine countries including the USA, UK, Portugal, Switzerland, Japan, Poland, Nepal, Russia and China. "Delta was a variant of concern whereas Delta plus till date has been tagged as a variant of interest," informed Bhushan. Delta variant of Covid-19 which has created havoc during the second wave of the pandemic has been found in 80 countries across the globe.

Amid speculations over the effectiveness of Indian vaccines on the Delta variant of Covid19, Bhushan reiterated that both the vaccines (COVAXIN and COVISHIELD) are effective against Delta variants. He was referring to a WHO report stating that the existing vaccines may not work against Delta variants. "The present Indian vaccines are effective against Delta variants but to what extent, we are looking into the issue very closely," added Bhushan.

"Today India reported 42,460 Covid cases, which is a 90 per cent decline in cases since the highest peak reported," Bhusan said. India is also witnessing a 29 per cent consistent decline in average daily new cases. The country is also witnessing a sharp decline in active cases and a sharp increase in the number of recoveries.

On a question regarding the Co-WIN platform, Bhushan said that it is a robust IT-based platform. "Co-WIN registered 2.4 billion visitors on a single day. When we started vaccination for people above 18 years of age, we have registered 13.7 million people on the very first day," said Bhushan.

VK Paul said India has the capacity to vaccinate a huge number in a single day through its universal immunisation programme. "During polio immunisation programme, our health care workers used to administer 6-8 crore polio doses in a single day. So, we have the capacity to do so," he said.

Dr Paul, however, said that there's a need to remove gender imbalance in the vaccination process. "More and more women should come forward to take the vaccination," said Dr Paul. Referring to the third wave, Dr Paul said that the Covid-19 virus is mutating and its mutation is also unpredictable. "Transmissibility increase when the virus mutates. However, we can stop this with our coordinated approach," said Dr Paul.

Replying to the question of whether senior citizens and elderly people can come out of their homes, Dr Paul said that they can do so with maximum precautions. "Older people can go for a walk but it should be done with maximum precautions. They should also avoid mass gathering," Dr Paul said.

Referring to the reopening of schools, Dr Paul expressed reservation on the suggestion of opening schools. "In schools, we do see small-medium and large gathering. It's better, we protect ourselves before opening schools," said Dr Paul.