Maharashtra's Delta Plus Variant Count Crosses 100 After 27 New Cases

Out of the 188 samples of the first batch sent to Mumbai's Kasturba hospital for genome sequencing of COVID-19 positive patients in the capital, 128 have been identified with the Delta variant.

Maharashtra recorded 27 new cases of the Delta Plus COVID-19 variant today, taking the total number of Delta Plus cases in the state to 103, according to the state health department. Meanwhile, out of the 188 samples of the first batch sent to Mumbai's Kasturba hospital for genome sequencing of COVID-19 positive patients in the capital, 128 have been identified with the Delta variant -- 68 per cent of the samples. Two samples, or 1.06 per cent of samples, were detected with the Alpha variant while 24 samples, or 12.76 per cent, had traces of the Kappa variant. Maharashtra is conducting genome sequencing tests of COVID-19 positive patients' samples on a regular basis to ascertain the extent of spread of mutants of the virus.