Mumbai: 128 of 188 Covid-19 samples turn out to be Delta positive

People wait outside Kasturba Hospital to get tested for Covid-19 last year. File pic

Reports of the first batch of 188 samples that underwent genome sequencing at the civic-run Kasturba Hospital lab revealed that 128 patients were infected with the Delta variant of Covid-19. Of the remaining samples, two have been found to be the Alpha variant, 24 the Kappa variant and the remaining were infected with the common Covid virus. The BMC said that it will trace the close contacts of the patients who are still taking treatment in hospitals and even appealed to citizens to follow Covid-appropriate behaviour.

Till the reports came in, the state had only 76 Delta plus cases, of which 11 were from Mumbai. The tests for genome sequencing started on Friday and the cycle was completed by Sunday. The interpretation and analysis took another day. "Out of the 188 samples tested, 128 patients were found to be infected with the Delta variant, two were Alpha and 24 were Kappa," said a BMC official.

The B.1.617.1 (Kappa) and B.1.617.2 (Delta) variants of Covid-19, were first identified in India in October last year. Alpha (B.1.1.7) was first identified in the UK but it has spread to more than 50 countries. The B.1.617 variant, commonly referred to as the double mutant, had mutated into three significant variants. Scientifically, they are referred to as B.1.617.1, B.1.617.2, and B.1.617.3.

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"No one should panic but Covid-appropriate behaviour is necessary. We will trace the close contacts of the Delta cases and conduct their tests if the patients are still taking treatment. It will help us provide treatment to seriously ill patients," said Suresh Kakani, additional commissioner of the BMC. He added that there is no evidence that the Delta variant causes more serious illness or leads to a higher fatality rate, but appealed to everyone to follow precautionary measures like wearing masks, maintaining safe distance, washing and sanitising hands and avoiding crowds.

The BMC's genome sequencing lab became operational at Kasturba hospital on August 4. Though the new machine can test 384 samples in one go, the first batch had fewer samples as there aren't many cases in the city that show signs of the variants. The previous tests were done at the National Institute of Virology, Pune, but the results came in about two to three months later due to heavy load. Hence, the BMC decided to establish its own lab.

Sample selection

The expensive genetic-level test requires samples that meet certain criteria. They are supposed to be collected from people who died of Covid, patients who were seriously ill and were discharged after several days in the ICU, a cluster of cases in a particular place and cases with international travel history.