Aizawl, June 19: Mizoram has reported four cases of highly transmissible Delta variant (B.1.617.2) of Covid-19, an official said.
This is for the first time that Delta variant cases of COVID-19 have been detected in Mizoram.
The Delta variant has been detected in four men, all from Aizawl district, whose samples were sent along with others to National Institute of Biomedical Genomics (NIBMG) in West Bengal in recent months, state’s spokesperson on Covid-19 Dr Pachuau Lalmalsawma said.
The patients were in the age group of 18-45 years, he said. The new variant was confirmed by National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Friday, he said.
According to him, three of the four patients had travel history, while one had locally contracted the infection.
All the patients have fully recovered from Covid-19, he said. Pachuau, who is also state nodal officer of the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), said that samples were intermittently sent to NIBMG for whole-genome sequencing.
About 100 more samples will also be sent for whole genome sequencing very soon, he added. Pachuau said that only four Delta variant cases have been confirmed so far in the state by National Centre for Disease Control.
