A woman from Rajasthan, who was fully vaccinated against COVID-19, is the state’s first case of Delta plus variant, reported news agency PTI. The 65-year-old woman from Bikaner had received both doses of Covaxin.
She had tested positive for coronavirus and her samples were sent to the National Institute of Virology in Pune on May 30 for genome sequencing. Her test report came on Friday.
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“The Delta-plus variant was found in the woman’s sample. She has already recovered from the COVID infection,” said Dr OP Chahar, Bikaner’s Chief Medical and Health Officer.
It was the first confirmed case of Delta plus variant in Rajasthan, he said.
“She was asymptomatic and has recovered completely,” Dr Chahar said, adding that the woman had received both doses of Covaxin.
India’s indigenous COVID vaccine, Covaxin was developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech. It is among the three vaccines, other than AstraZeneca’s Covishield and Russia’s Sputnik V, currently being administered in India.
Meanwhile, Delta plus (B.1.617.2.1) is a new variant of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). It resulted from an additional mutation, known as K417N, in the Deta (B.1.617.2) variant. That mutation was earlier found in the Beta (first found in South Africa) and Gamma (first found in Brazil) variants.
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In India, 51 cases of the variant have been confirmed across 12 states. Maharashtra has recorded the highest number of 22 cases. It is followed by Tamil Nadu (9), Madhya Pradesh (7), Kerala (3), two each in Punjab and Gujarat, and one case each in Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana and Karnataka.