MP registers five cases of Delta Plus infection; one dead
What's the story
Five persons have so far been found infected with the Delta Plus variant of coronavirus in Madhya Pradesh and one of them has died, State Medical Education Minister Vishwas Sarang said on Thursday.
The other four persons, who were vaccinated against COVID-19, are fine, he said.
"One person from Ujjain, who died, was not inoculated," Sarang said further.
Cases
Three cases were found in Bhopal, two in Ujjain
Notably, Delta Plus has been declared a variant of concern by the Centre.
So far, three persons from Bhopal and two from Ujjain have been found infected with the Delta Plus variant in MP, the minister said.
A genome sequencing machine will soon be installed in Bhopal and the state would then not have to send samples to Delhi, Sarang added.
Death
The deceased was a 59-year-old woman
Ujjain Collector Ashish Singh confirmed that a 59-year-old woman, who died of COVID-19 on May 23, was infected with the Delta Plus variant.
She tested positive for coronavirus on May 17. Later, her sample was sent for genome sequencing. On Tuesday, it was found that she was infected by the Delta Plus variant, the official said.
Further details
'Delta Plus' is a mutation of the Delta variant
Earlier, the sample of a 65-year-old woman from Bhopal was sent to the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on May 23 and it came out positive for the variant on June 16.
The new Delta Plus variant has been formed due to a mutation in the Delta variant, first identified in India and one of the drivers of the deadly second wave.
COVID-19 numbers
MP has registered more than 7.89 lakh COVID-19 cases
Though there is no indication yet of the severity of the disease due to the new variant, Delta Plus is resistant to the monoclonal antibody cocktail treatment for COVID-19 recently authorized in India
On Wednesday, Madhya Pradesh recorded 84 coronavirus cases and 21 fatalities, raising the tally of infections in the state to 7,89,499 and the death toll to 8,827, as per official data.