Chennai Nurse, First Case Of Delta Plus Variant In Tamil Nadu, Recovers And Rejoins Duty

Tamil Nadu Delta Plus variant case: Tamil Nadu's first case of the dangerous Delta Plus coronavirus variant or AY.1 was a 32-year-old staff nurse from a private hospital at Adyar in Chennai. She was infected and the RT-PCR report diagnosed her positive on May 4. She was in home isolation with mild symptoms and has now recovered fully from the ailment, public health officials said. On May 19 and the reports came negative.

However, her sample was sent to Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomic Consortia (INSACOG), a forum set up for surveillance and genome sequencing COVID-19 strains in the country, to be checked for Delta Plus variant. The woman is employed as a staff nurse at a city hospital. She has re-joined her duty the following day. The 32-year-old is currently not showing any signs of the illness or post COVID-19 complications, said a report from the directorate of public health and preventive medicine. More here.

“This is the only sample that has returned positive for Delta plus in TN so far. There are 16 other variants including Alpha and Beta. But nearly 72% of the samples (556) were Delta variants,” health secretary Dr J Radhakrishnan informed on Wednesday. Until now, the state has sent more than 1,159 samples to the lab. The senior IAS official, who has been handling the pandemic crisis, said there was no need for alarm as “the nurse is doing well and has no post-COVID complications". He further emphasised upon the need to follow preventive measures including wearing face masks, avoiding crowds and getting vaccinated.

The Delta Plus variant has been around since March this year. It is being speculated that it could lead to a possible third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in India. The variant is a mutated form of the Delta variant or ‘B.1.617.2 variant’ of SARS-CoV-2. ‘Delta plus’ or ‘AY.1’ or ‘B.1.617.2.1’ variant is characterised by a mutation in the spike protein, which helps the virus enter and infect the human cells. Read more here.

Feature Image Credit: Scripps.org