Coronavirus: UK strain likely caused surge in cases in Delhi, shows data
Half of the positive samples that were genome sequenced in the last week of March showed the UK variant.
The current wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in Delhi could have been fuelled by the United Kingdom strain of the virus, PTI reported on Friday quoting a top health official.
The variant was found in 28% of the samples that tested positive in the second week of March, while the number went up to 50% in the last week of the month, Sujeet Singh, Director of the National Centre for Disease Control said. Singh was speaking at a webinar on the topic, “Genome Sequencing of SARS-CoV-19”.
Singh said that a total of 15,133 samples have so far been genome sequenced by the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomic Consortia. The body was founded in December last year to conduct genomic sequencing and analysing the circulation of Covid-19 viruses. Of all the samples, variants were detected in 1,735 cases, or nearly around 11.5% of them, Singh said, according to NDTV.
Apart from Delhi, the UK variant was detected largely in Punjab too as 551 of the cases that were genome sequenced showed the strain.
In case of Maharashtra, the worst affected state, the UK strain was found in 64 cases, while 427 cases showed the double mutant variant that was first detected in India.
At 73.5%, Punjab recorded the highest proportion of cases of the variant strains, followed by Uttar Pradesh (60%) and Telangana (41%), NDTV reported.
Last week, a report said that as much as 61% of the Covid-19 samples taken from Maharashtra between January and March for genome sequencing have shown the presence of the double mutant strain.
Last month, the Centre had said that the double mutant variant and “variants of concern” had been detected in at least 18 states in India.