Hyderabad: As many as 66 people across Maharashtra have been infected with the Delta plus (डेल्टा) variant of COVID-19, while five people (two from Ratnagiri, one each in Mumbai, Beed and Raigad) have lost their lives due to the deadly infection. According to reports, the deceased were aged 65 plus and had co-morbidities.
According to the state health department, two of those deceased were fully vaccinated and two others had taken a single jab, while it is not known whether one person had received the vaccine or not.
On Sunday, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray warned that a lockdown shall be imposed if the state witnesses a surge in the number of COVID-19 cases. Addressing the people of the state through social media, Thackeray said that Maharashtra has made preparations ahead of the third wave of COVID-19.
Read: Delta plus patient dies in Mumbai even after fully vaccinated
What is Delta variant?
Delta is the most contagious of all Coronavirus variants known. The original Wuhan strain was overtaken by the more contagious D614G strain by March 2020, and that virus was responsible for the Victorian second wave. Then in September, Alpha emerged in the United Kingdom and was even more contagious.
Alpha seemed set to dominate the world by early 2021, but then Delta emerged and swept the world. It has mutations that make it more contagious than Alpha and more able to evade the immunity conferred by vaccines.
One study found the amount of virus shed from people infected with Delta to be over 1,000 times greater than from the original 2020 strain identified in Wuhan. Another study, which hasn't yet been peer-reviewed, showed Delta is more than twice as likely to cause hospitalization, ICU admission and death.
Read: Sputnik V jab 83 per cent effective against Delta variant, says Russian health ministry
