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Only Delta, Kappa variants found in gene sequencing by KGMU, says U.P. CM Yogi Adityanath
Both the variants are not new for Uttar Pradesh, says chief minister. Earlier, at least two cases of the Delta Plus variant were found among the samples from eastern Uttar Pradesh sent for gene sequencing to the New Delhi-based Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday said only the Delta and Kappa variants of the Sars-Cov-2 pathogen were found in the Covid samples from Uttar Pradesh gene sequenced by King George’s Medical University (KGMU), Lucknow.
Delta and Kappa are the old variants of the second wave of the pandemic. (Earlier, at least two cases of the Delta Plus variant were found among the samples from eastern Uttar Pradesh sent for gene sequencing to the New Delhi-based Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology in May. The reports of these samples were received in July).
“Both the variants (Delta and Kappa) are not new for UP,” he said at a high-level Covid review meeting, mentioning that recently KGMU did genome sequencing of 109 samples of which 107 were Delta and two Kappa variants. The two Kappa cases are from Lucknow according to the address mentioned at the time of sampling. The samples were collected in May.
In earlier meetings, he had repeatedly been asking the state’s Covid management team to be on the lookout for the newer Delta Plus variant, considered more virulent than the other variants in the first and second waves.
In view of the Delta Plus variant infections reported in several other states, the Uttar Pradesh government had asked KGMU to do genome sequencing to detect if the variant was present in the state.
The chief minister once again laid stress on the enhancement of facilities within the state for genome sequencing.
Yogi said the state had done 6.1 crore (61 million) Covid tests (since the onset of Covid in the state in March last year) and had administered 3.6 crore (36 million) Covid vaccination doses.
“In both tests and vaccination, the state is number one in the country,” he said.
He also said that in the past 24 hours, Uttar Pradesh did 2.52 lakh (252,000) tests of which only 90 tested positive while 162 patients recovered during the same period.
“The positivity rate in the past 24 hours was a mere 0.04%. There are 41 districts that did not report any fresh case. In 32 districts, cases came up in single digits. Now, the state has only 1,697 active Covid cases and the recovery rate in Uttar Pradesh is 98.6%,” Yogi said.
He also said that 7.83 lakh (783,000) Covid vaccination doses were administered across the state in the past 24 hours and asked the officials concerned to further speed up the vaccination process.
