Mizoram, Sept 22: Three cases of Delta Plus variants have been detected from Mizoram for the first time, the state’s senior health official said.
Of the 350 samples, three samples have been detected as the positive for the Delta Plus variant when it sent for Whole Genome Sequencing, said Dr Pachuau Lalmalsawma, official spokesperson of Mizoram on Covid-19.
“All the 350 samples were sent to the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics (NIBMG) in Bengal’s Kalyani in August. Of the samples that were confirmed to be of the Delta Plus variant, two were from patients in the state’s Champhai district and one from a patient in the Kolasib district,” Dr Lalmalsawma said.
The Delta Plus variant has a higher transmissibility rate compared to the other variants of coronavirus, studies have shown. 70 samples were confirmed to be from the Delta Lineage and are being further studied.
213 samples from Aizawl, Lunglei, Kolasib, Champhai, and Serchhip districts returned positive for the Delta variant.
According to Pachuau, Mizoram has so far reported 510 cases of the new Covid-19 variant. The state reported the first four cases of Delta variant in April, 73 cases of Delta variant, and one each of Alpha and Delta variants in July.
In August, 115 more cases of Delta variant of Covid-19 were reported in the state.
Meanwhile, Mizoram on Wednesday reported 1,355 fresh COVID-19 cases and six deaths in the last 24 hours, pushing the state’s tally to 82,815, a health official said.
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The single-day infection rate was 15.39 percent, as the fresh cases were detected from 8,805 sample tests. At least 807 patients have developed symptoms of Covid-19, he added.
Mizoram now has 15,363 active cases, while 67,184 people have recovered from the infection including 1127 people on Tuesday. The recovery rate among Covid-19 patients is 82.47 per cent and the death rate is 0.33 per cent.
The state has conducted more than 10.34 lakh sample tests for Covid-19 to date. According to state immunization officer Dr Lalzawmi, over 6.72 lakh people have been vaccinated till Tuesday, of which 3.85 lakh people have received full doses.
