48 Delta Plus cases found so far, Maharashtra tops the list

India has so far recorded 48 cases of the Delta Plus variant of the coronavirus, the union health ministry said on Friday. It also warned that the second wave of Covid-19 was not over yet.

Infections with the Delta Plus variant have been reported from Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Gujarat, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Rajasthan, Jammu & Kashmir and Karnataka.

Maharashtra has reported the highest number at 20, followed by Tamil Nadu (9), Madhya Pradesh (7) and Kerala (3). Punjab and Gujarat have reported 2 each, while Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Karnataka and J&K have reported one each, the ministry said.


On Wednesday, the government had reported 40 cases of infection with Delta Plus. The government, however, said the spread was still “very localised”.

“There is one more mutation that has been there in Delta variant, that is Delta Plus, it is now being looked at by scientists. More than 50K samples have been sequenced,” department of biotechnology secretary Renu Swaroop said.

The government said Delta Plus cases were reported from 12 other countries, including the US, UK, Portugal, China, Japan, Russia and Switzerland.

Indian Council of Medical Research director-general Balram Bhargava said both Covidshield and Covaxin vaccines work against the coronavirus variants of Alpha, Beta, Gama as well as Delta.

The virus strain had been isolated and is being cultured by the ICMR-National Institute of Virology, and tests to check its resistance to existing Covid vaccines were ongoing, the government said.

The government on Wednesday said that the Delta Plus variant had been listed as a variant of concern, urging states to take “immediate containment steps”.

The Delta Plus variant possibly has increased transmissibility, higher binding capacity to the lung cells and resistance to monoclonal antibody treatment, the government had said. The variant is a mutated version of the Delta strain that drove the second wave of infections.

Meanwhile, health secretary Rajesh Bhushan stressed on vaccine coverage on a priority basis in states which have reported cases of Delta Plus.

In a letter to the chief secretaries of these states on Friday, he urged them to take up immediate containment measures.