Number of patients infected with the coronavirus COVID-19 Delta Plus variant is on a rise in Maharashtra. The state has reported the highest number of cases in India and keeping the same in mind, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to install a genome sequencing machine at Mumbai's Kasturba Hospital.
This aim behind installing the machine is to eliminate the need to send a new variant to Pune's National Institute of Virology (NIV) for testing. With this, the Delta Plus variant of COVID-19 can be tested at the Kasturba Hospital.
Also Read: COVID-19 Delta Plus variant: What's allowed, What's shut in Mumbai?
To implement the decision, a state-of-the-art machine worth INR 6.5 crore will be brought to Kasturba Hospital from the US in the next two weeks. Test reports will be made available at this location in merely two to four days.
As of now, BMC has identified approximately 600 reports of suspected cases with Delta Plus infection, and only one patient has been found in Mumbai with this new strain of COVID-19. Reports state that he too has recovered from the infection. However, setting up a system to test the strain will benefit the city in the near future.
Currently, samples of suspected patients are sent to the NIV for genome sequencing and this takes a long time for the reports to be released. Since the risk of Delta Plus strain is high, officials have decided to conduct tests of virus at the hospital in Mumbai, which will be convenient in identifying the potential cases and new patients.
Not just Delta Plus Variant, Health experts recently warned of 4 more emerging COVID-19 variants in India. Report state that the country, as of June 22, reported 148 genome sequences of B.1.617.3 from the total worldwide sequences of 161, and as far as the Kappa variant is concerned, the country has reported 3,083 of the 4,217 sequences from around the world.
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