The Centre on Tuesday declared the Delta Plus variant of the coronavirus as a ‘variant of concern’ in India. In a press release on the rising number of Delta Plus cases in the country, the Union health ministry said Delta Plus is “currently a variant of concern”.
This comes just a few hours after the ministry, in its routine press briefing on the coronavirus situation, had said Delta Plus was only a “variant of interest”.
India is among the nine countries where the Delta plus mutation has been found so far, Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said at a press briefing earlier today, underlining that it is currently a “variant of interest” and has not yet been classified as a “variant of concern”.
However, shortly after, the Centre took a U-turn and advised Maharashtra, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh to take up immediate containment measures, enhance testing, tracking and vaccination in districts and clusters where the Delta Plus variant has been detected, declaring it as a “variant of concern”.
Twenty-two cases of the Delta Plus variant of the coronavirus in India, with 16 of them being reported from Maharashtra and the remaining from Madhya Pradesh and Kerala, the government said on Tuesday.
The Centre has also asked these states to promptly send adequate samples of positive persons to designated laboratories of INSACOG so that the clinical epidemiological correlations can be made.
“The labs of INSACOG bring this information to the notice of health ministry which then in timely and prompt manner indicates to the concerned states what are the activities that have to be initiated to curb the spread. The public health response is standardised for the variants,” he said. INSACOG, or Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics, was set up to conduct genome sequencing of the coronavirus.
Besides India, the Delta plus variant has been found in the US, UK, Portugal, Switzerland, Japan, Poland, Nepal, China and Russia. “The Delta variant has been detected in 80 countries,” Bhushan said.
He also said, “Broadly speaking, both the Indian vaccines — Covishield and Covaxin — are effective against Delta variant but to what extent and what is the proportion of antibody titers they produce, that information we would very shortly share.”
This on a day when India reported less than 50,000 new coronavirus infections, the lowest in 91 days, taking the total tally of cases to 2,99,77,861, while active cases fell below seven lakh after 79 days, according to the Union health ministry data updated on Tuesday.
A total of 42,640 COVID-19 infections were reported in a day, while the toll climbed to 3,89,302 with 1,167 daily fatalities, the lowest in 68 days.
Meanwhile, India’s cumulative COVID-19 vaccination coverage crossed 29.40 crore (29,40,42,822), as per the 7 pm provisional report on Tuesday, said the Union health ministry. More than 48 lakh vaccine doses administered on Tuesday, the second day of the new phase of the inoculation drive, the ministry said citing the provisional report.
Consistent improvement of pandemic situation, says Centre
Speaking on the overall pandemic situation in the country, NITI Aayog Member (Health) VK Paul said there is a consistent improvement in the pandemic situation but stressed that people must continue to follow COVID-19-appropriate behaviour and avoid crowds and parties. “Uptake of vaccination has to be increased,” he said.
“The number of districts reporting more than 100 daily cases has shrunk to 135 from 531 (in the week ending 20 May) which is reassuring and even with restrictions being eased we are able to maintain the declining pace. But with the restrictions being lifted our responsibility increases.. .it is in our hands to ensure that pandemic remains localised and suppressed,” Paul said.
Bhushan said there has been an almost 90 percent decline in India’s daily COVID-19 cases as compared to the highest peak reported on 7 May.
Also, a sharp decline in weekly positivity rate — an 84 percent decrease has been noted since the highest reported weekly positivity of 21.4 percent recorded between 4 and 10 May.
Jharkhand sounds alarm after several variants detected
Alarmed by the detection of several variants of coronavirus in Jharkhand with 328 confirmed cases surfacing so far, the state government has directed the authorities to despatch samples within 48 hours of a patients death for conducting a genetic study to understand the mortality rate and evolve a strategy to contain the spread, a top official said Tuesday.
Battling the deadly second wave of the COVID-19 that has claimed 5,100 lives in tribal-dominated Jharkhand, the state government is concerned as these variants such as Delta, Alpha, and Kappa are said to be more transmissible.
“As many as 328 of the 364 samples have tested positive for variants like Delta, Alfa, and Kappa in the state in course of whole genomic sequencing”, State Health Secretary, Arun Kumar Singh told PTI.
Bharat Biotech’s COVAXIN has 77.8% efficacy in Phase 3 trials
An expert panel of the country’s central drugs authority has reviewed and accepted the Phase 3 trial data of Bharat Biotech’s COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin, PTI reported, citing unnamed sources said on Tuesday.
According to the data submitted by the Hyderabad-based firm, the indigenously developed vaccine has shown 77.8 percent efficacy in the trial conducted on 25,800 subjects, they said.
The firm had submitted the results of its phase-3 trial efficacy data of Covaxin to the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) over the weekend, they added. The COVID-19 Subject Expert Committee (SEC) of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) on Tuesday reviewed the data and accepted it. Their recommendations have been sent to the DCGI now, a PTI source said.
Bharat Biotech is also expected to attend a “pre-submission” meeting on 23 July with the World Health Organisation (WHO), which will take the vaccine-maker closer to a WHO Emergency Use Listing (EUL).
Rahul Gandhi releases Congress’ white paper on COVID-19 management
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday urged the government to prepare for the third wave of coronavirus by improving medical infrastructure and vaccinate on a war footing to protect all Indians.
He also released a “white paper” by the party on the Centre’s COVID handling, saying, “It is pretty clear that the management of the first and second wave was disastrous.”
Rahul also took a swipe at the prime minister for turning emotional while talking about COVID deaths in his address to the nation, and said the deaths have been needless and could have been avoided.
“The prime minister’s tears cannot wipe the tears of those who lost the lives of their kin. The PM’s tears did not save the lives of those who died, but oxygen could have saved them,” he said.
LIVE: Release of White Paper on GOI’s management of Covid19 & interaction with the Press https://t.co/17nlvyv6Op
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) June 22, 2021
Kerala announces further relaxations in lockdown rules
The Kerala government on Tuesday announced further relaxations in the lockdown regulations, while cautioning the public against a possible third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The new relaxations would come into effect from Thursday, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan told a press conference here after a review meeting.
Vijayan said the spread of the disease in the state is on the decline. As per the new guidelines, banks will function on Tuesdays and Thursdays also, but the public will not have access to the branches on these days.
With inputs from PTI