Mumbai: 78-year-old woman is city’s first Delta Plus patient

A 78-year-old woman from the eastern suburb of Mumbai is the first Covid-19 patient in Mumbai whose blood sample showed the presence of Delta Plus (AY

A 78-year-old woman from the eastern suburb of Mumbai is the first Covid-19 patient in Mumbai whose blood sample showed the presence of Delta Plus (AY.1) variant in April. As per civic officials, she was asymptomatic and recovered completely.

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Delta Plus, which is a mutation of the highly transmissible Delta variant of Sars-CoV-2 (B.1.617.2) and detected in the state during the second wave, is currently considered a “variant of interest” and is not yet a “variant of concern”.

In April, when the pandemic curve was at its peak, public health officers noticed the transmission rate in some families was high thereby indicating a mutation of Sars-Cov-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. Taking this into consideration, the local health officers started sending blood samples for genome sequencing from hotspots and families with high infection rate.

Genome sequencing is an exercise to study the changes in the structure of the virus over time. A combination of changes in the ribonucleic acid of the virus can give birth to a new variant.

The septuagenarian was among hundreds whose blood samples were collected as her family recorded a high infection rate. “As per the report submitted to us, all her family members had Covid-19. So, randomly blood samples including hers were collected for genome sequencing. She was asymptomatic and didn’t even have any complications,” said Dr Mangala Gomare, executive health officer.

She has recovered completely without any post-Covid health complications, as per civic officials.

On Monday, state health minister Rajesh Tope confirmed they had found 21 Delta Plus Covid-19 variant cases in Mumbai, Thane, Ratnagiri, Jalgaon, Palghar and Sindhudurg in the state.

The file that has been sent to BMC doesn’t mention Delta Plus variant, but ‘variant of concern’ in the subject line. “So, officially on record, we are not being told that it is a Delta Plus variant. Also, out of the two mentioned cases in Mumbai, one of them is from Thane,” said a senior health officer from BMC.

In view of the rise in infections across the state in March-April, the state government in April had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB) to undertake genome sequencing of 4,000 positive swab samples.

“It is a regular exercise for all districts to send samples for genome sequencing from hotspots, containment zones, families with high infection rate and international travellers,” said Dr Archana Patil, Maharashtra director of health service.