Delta Plus Variant: Maharashtra Records 66 New Cases, 5 Deaths

Mumbai: Five people, including one from Mumbai, have died and 66 people infected with Delta Plus variant in Maharashtra so far. Some are fully vaccinated, state health department said on Friday.

Seven of these patients were aged under 18, they added.

The COVID-19 Delta Plus variant, considered highly infectious, was detected during genome sequencing of swab samples sent from different parts of the state.

A 63-year-old fully vaccinated woman from Mumbai died because of the infection in the last week of July, the first death due to the Delta Plus variant in Mumbai, a civic official said.

Following the woman’s death in Mumbai, at least two of her close contacts were also found infected with the Delta Plus variant, said the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) official.

A resident of Mumbai’s suburban Ghatkopar area, the woman died on July 27 in the ICU of a hospital. Only on August 11 the state authorities learnt that she had the Delta Plus variant infection after the genome sequencing report came, the official said.

The woman had taken both the doses of the Covishield vaccine, but tested Covid positive on July 21, he said.

According to a health department statement, a 50-year-old woman from Thane was found coronavirus positive on July 22 and her report received on Friday revealed she was infected with the Delta Plus variant.

The woman had mild symptoms and she has since recovered, the statement said.

Among the five deaths linked to the Delta Plus variant, two patients were from Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri district and one each from Raigad, Beed and Mumbai, the health department said, according to news agency Press Trust of India.

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