Concerns rise over Delta Plus variant

The emergence of a more contagious Delta Plus variant of COVID-19 is causing increasing concern in some Indian states and many other countries.

On Friday, the Indian government said that 51 cases of the Delta Plus variant of the coronavirus had been detected in 12 states, with Maharashtra reporting the highest number, 22. Maharashtra on Friday also reported the first death due to the Delta Plus variant.

About 200 cases of the new Delta Plus variant with an additional mutation called K417N had been found in as many as 11 countries by June 16.

India's health ministry asked chief secretaries of eight states on Friday to take immediate containment measures in districts where cases of patients infected with the Delta Plus variant have been found. On Tuesday the government had classified Delta Plus, the new mutant version of Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, as a variant of concern.

Sujeet Kumar Singh, director of the National Centre for Disease Control, said that in India COVID-19 "variants of concerns" were found to be distributed in 174 districts in 35 states. The highest numbers were reported in Maharashtra, Delhi, Punjab, Telangana, West Bengal and Gujarat.

The health ministry said the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics, a network of 28 laboratories, found the new virus has increased transmissibility, with stronger binding to receptors of lung cells and that it leads to potential reduction in a monoclonal antibody response that can fight the disease.

Dominant type

Delta grew to become the dominant variant in India because of its improved ability to jump to new hosts, according to a recent study by a group of scientists from the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology in collaboration with the Gupta Lab of Cambridge University.

The unique set of mutations makes the virus more infective, leads to higher viral load in people and causes larger outbreak clusters, the study found.

The Delta variant, first detected in India, carries a number of mutations in the spike protein that have been linked to increased transmission of the virus, experts say. The Alpha variant was first identified in the UK.

Globally the pandemic is still slowing, with the World Health Organization reporting the lowest number of new cases worldwide since February and decreasing deaths attributed to COVID-19.

However, the Delta variant has now spread to at least 85 countries and is the most contagious of any strain identified, said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

The Delta variant has also been fueling rising case numbers in Australia, where its largest city, Sydney, entered a two-week lockdown on Saturday to contain a sudden surge. The lockdown, affecting more than 5 million people in the city and nearby local government areas, was met with dismay after months of very few cases.

In Russia, St. Petersburg on Saturday reported the country's highest death toll for a city since the start of the pandemic.

The country's second city, which has hosted six Euro 2020 soccer matches and is due to host a quarterfinal on Friday, recorded 107 virus deaths in 24 hours.

The WHO suggested three parameters－increased transmissibility, more virulence, and decreased effectiveness of public health measures－to determine its seriousness.

"WHO is tracking this variant as part of the Delta variant, as we are doing for other variants of concern with additional mutations," the WHO said in a statement.

The new mutant variant may just be capable of dodging immunities, both from COVID-19 vaccines as well as from earlier infections, said Shahid Jameel, virologist and former member of the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics.

Aparajit Chakraborty in New Delhi, agencies and Xinhua contributed to this story.