All of Madhya Pradesh's Covid-19 cases in June likely due to Delta variant

The National Centre of Disease Control’s (NCDC) genome sequencing report of Madhya Pradesh’s Covid-19 samples from June indicates that the Delta variant may be responsible for almost all the Covid-19 infections of the state for June.

In April, 57 per cent of the samples of MP tested positive for the Delta variant. The numbers rose to 69 per cent in May, while in June it has surged to 100 per cent. Every sample from MP sent for genome sequencing in June turned out to be positive for the variant.

“Delta is the predominant variant in the state for the last three months and Delta-plus has been detected in only eight cases in MP,” Akash Tripathi, health commissioner, told The Times Of India.

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Based on the severity of the infection or post-vaccination infections or duration of hospital stay, or infection with comorbidities, the government is sending samples for genome sequencing to NCDC in order to detect the Delta variant, according to Tripathi.

“We are sending around 300 samples per month from across the state to NCDC for genome sequencing for better surveillance," he said about measures being taken to track the new variant.

The commissioner added that 2,000 samples are sent to NCDC from Madhya Pradesh as of now.