Delta variant most predominant in second wave in Jharkhand’s 5 districts

Out of the 364 samples, the Delta variant was most dominant in 204 samples (which makes 56% of the samples analysed). Other dominating VoC were Kappa variant in 63 samples, and Alpha variant in 29 samples

Genome sequencing of samples of Covid-19 patients from across five major districts of Jharkhand has shown the prevalence of variants of concern (VoC) among 90% samples, with the Delta variant being most predominant.

Health workers administer Covid-19 vaccine doses to auto-rickshaw drivers outside the railway station in Ranchi earlier in June. (File photo)

Health department officials said 364 samples collected in the months of April and May from Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Dhanbad, Hazaribagh, and Palamu over the past two months were sent for genome sequencing to Institute of Life Sciences in Bhubaneswar, out of which 328 reported the prevalence of VoC.

“Out of the 364 samples, the Delta variant was most dominant in 204 samples (which makes 56% of the samples analysed). Other dominating VoC were Kappa variant in 63 samples, and Alpha variant in 29 samples. The rest had other variants. Samples from other districts have also been sent to the Bhubaneswar lab, report of which is awaited,” said Siddharth Tripathi, nodal officer of the health department’s IEC (information, education, and communication) wing.

The second wave started rising sharply around the last week of March and peaked in the last week of April in the state.

The April 29-May 5 week proved to be the deadliest in terms of loss of lives in the second wave, with 951 fatalities that week which also recorded the highest weekly test positivity rate of 16.25%.

However, the highest fresh cases were recorded a week before that, in the week beginning April 22, which recorded 44,133 fresh cases.

The number of cases, fatality and active cases have dipped considerably in the state now. As per the latest health department data, the state recorded 122 fresh cases on June 21 and it has 1,489 active cases. Only one Covid death was recorded in the state on Monday.