Tuesday, 31 August 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
Only two cases of Delta plus reported in U’khand. Three sub lineages of Delta variant – AY .4, AY .12 and AY .1 reported in the state so far.
Contrary to the popular belief the delta plus variant of Covid -19 is not very virulent and dangerous and in India about 100 cases of this variant have been reported. In Uttarakhand only two cases of delta plus variant (sub lineage AY.1) have been reported so far and both of them are from Udham Singh Nagar district. In both the cases of delta plus in the state the patients were asymptomatic. Recently some cases in the Pithoragarh and Rudraprayag districts were wrongly reported as the Delta plus variant. These cases were actually AY .4 and AY .12 sub lineages of the Delta variant.
The officer in-charge of the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), Dr Pankaj Kumar Singh told The Pioneer that mutation in Sars Cov-2 (Covid-19) is a common phenomenon. He added that the Delta variant (B 1.617.2) which was responsible for the second wave of the Covid-19 in the country has many sub lineages. Dr Singh added that AY .4 and AY .12 sub lineages have been found in 42 samples in Uttarakhand and in all cases the disease was mild. He further informed that delta variant is being reported in almost 70 per cent cases in Uttarakhand. The officer said that there is a misconception that the Delta plus variant is more dangerous as there is no evidence to prove it. He claimed that the state health department is vigilant on the disease and consistently monitoring the cases by sending the samples for genome sequencing.
Genome sequencing facility in U’khand awaits ICMR’s approval
The health department of Uttarakhand is awaiting the approval of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for setting up the facility of genome sequencing of the Covid-19 patients in the state. At present the department is sending samples to the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) New Delhi for genome sequencing. It is learnt that the department has sent the proposal to start genome sequencing of the samples at the labs of Government Medical College (GDMC) Dehradun, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Rishikesh, government medical college Haldwani and government medical college Srinagar. The ICMR is keen to increase the facility of genome sequencing in the country to increase the surveillance of the virus. At present the genome sequencing facility is available in 20 odd centres in the country.
