Rahul Gandhi poses 3 questions on 'Delta Plus' variant to Centre amid 3rd wave warnings

As experts warn India of a 3rd imminent COVID wave, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday, posed three questions on the new emerging Delta plus variant in the country. Questioning why testing was scaled up on a large scale for the new variant, the Gandhi scion also asked if the vaccines were effective on the new variants. Moreover, he asked government's plan to control a third wave.

Gandhi asks 3 questions on Delta plus variant

As of Wednesday, India reported  40 cases of the Delta Plus variant of the novel Coronavirus, government sources informed. The Delta plus variant which had been found prevalent in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu, has been classified as a 'Variant of Concern'. The government has issued an advisory to these states advising them to strengthen surveillance and public health measures.

The government stated that the new variant, which is a mutation of the Delta strain or the B.1.617.2 was first detected in India is not confined to the mentioned states. It also added that there is 'no significant increase in prevalence'. Maharashtra has already reported 21 cases of the new variant, bit has not seen any fatality yet due to it.

"Currently the number of such Delta plus variants in India are only few but the distribution/detection in various states during past two months indicate that it is already present in some states and states may need to enhance their public health response by focusing on surveillance, enhanced testing, quick contact-tracing and priority vaccination," the document says.

The government document also added that the variant has also been found in nine other countries of the world - US, UK, Portugal, Switzerland, Japan, Poland, Russia and China. Therefore, the WHO has classified the variants as Variant of Interest (VOI) and Variants of Concern (VOC). As per INSACOG (Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomic Consortia), a consortium of 28 labs tasked with genome sequencing of the virus causing Covid, the properties of the Delta Plus are still being investigated.

Vaccine effective on Delta variant

The Centre has informed that both Indian vaccines – Covishield and Covaxin - are effective against the Delta variant of Coronavirus. "Broadly speaking, both the Indian vaccines which we are currently using in Covid vaccination programme - we are using three but Sputnik V came quite later - so Covishield and Covaxin both are effective against Delta variant. But to what extent and what's the proportion of antibody titers that they produce, that we would share with you shortly," the union secretary stated.