There is presently no evidence to suggest that the Delta plus variant of Covid-19 will cause a third a wave of infections in India, Dr Anu...
There is presently no evidence to suggest that the Delta plus variant of Covid-19 will cause a third a wave of infections in India, Dr Anurag Agarwal, the head of the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, told NDTV on Wednesday.
Agarwal said that the Delta plus strain was detected in less than 1% of over 3,500 samples from Maharashtra that his institute sequenced in June. However, he emphasised that the strain was still a “variant of concern”.
The strain, which is a mutation of the Delta variant, has been classified as a “variant of concern”. The health ministry on Wednesday confirmed that around 40 cases of the Delta plus variant had been found in Maharashtra, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh. The government advised these states to concentrate on surveillance, testing, quick contact tracing and and vaccination.
Agarwal told the news channel that the country should be concerned about the continuing second wave of pandemic, before worrying about the third. “I certainly do not see any reason right now for people to panic regarding Delta plus being significantly worse than Delta or creating a major third wave,” Agarwal said. “There is absolutely no evidence for that.”
Agarwal also said that the Delta plus strain did not seem to cause more severe symptoms in...
