Maharashtra Covid third wave fear starts: Reports 27 new cases of Delta Plus variant

Maharashtra covid third wave fear starts, today reported 27 new cases of the highly transmissible Delta plus variant in the state. With the addition of these cases, the total number of people infected with the variant reaches 103.

Of the new 27 Delta plus cases, six each was detected in Gadchiroli and Amravati, followed by five in Nagpur, four in Ahmednagar, three in Yavatmal, two in Nashik and one in Bhandara district, it said . Meanwhile the Delta variant has been detected in 128 swab samples in Mumbai, the state health department and the BMC said on Monday.

As many as 128 swab samples in Mumbai were found with the Delta variant of coronavirus, said a Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) release. According to the release, 128 out of 188 samples sent for genome sequencing at a BMC acility were found to have the Delta variant of COVID-19.

Among other samples, two were found positive for the Alpha variant and 24 for the Kappa variant, while the remaining were of other strains of COVID-19, it said. The Union health ministry had earlier said the Delta variant was behind the second wave of the pandemic in India.

The BMC has set up a new genome sequencing facility at the civic-run Kasturba Hospital in the Chinchpokli area. The civic body tested the first batch of samples at this facility that Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had inaugurated on August 4.

According to the BMC release, the civic body has received two genome sequencing machines which were donated by an American organisation. At least 384 samples can be tested at the genome sequencing lab at a time and results can be made available within four days, it added.