BHOPAL: At least seven confirmed cases of the new Delta Plus variant of coronavirus have been confirmed in Madhya Pradesh.
Three patients, out of the seven, had either got single or double doses of the COVID vaccination and were cured under home isolation sans any complications.
The four remaining cases, who had not taken the vaccine, two have died after hospitalization, while two others, including a 22-year-old woman and a 2.5-year-old girl child have managed to defeat the infection.
Out of the seven cases, three are from Bhopal, two from Ujjain and one each from Raisen and Ashok Nagar districts.
All the seven patients were tested COVID positive last month but the genome sequencing of their samples at the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) established them as confirmed Delta Plus variant cases this month only.
The Commissioner of Health in MP Akash Tripathi told The New Indian Express that what could emerge as a silver lining in the dark cloud is the fact that three of these seven cases were either fully vaccinated or partially vaccinated.
"While a 60-plus woman who had already been administered double jabs of the vaccine won the battle against the infection under home isolation only, two other female patients, including a 60-plus woman and a 50-plus woman in Bhopal (both vaccinated partially) also turned negative for the viral infection under home isolation. This raises hope about strong possibility of the vaccination even working against the newest variant of the Coronavirus," Tripathi said.
The two other patients of the new variant, who've turned negative for infection after proper medical treatment, include a non-vaccinated 22-year-old woman from Raisen district and a 2.5 year old girl child in Bhopal.
Two other non-vaccinated patients, including a middle-aged man from Ashok Nagar district and a middle aged woman in Ujjain, however, succumbed to the infection despite best efforts by doctors at hospitals, Tripathi informed further.
Importantly, the non-vaccinated female patient who died at hospital in Ujjain last month had possibly contracted the infection from fully vaccinated security guard husband, who beat the COVID infection under home isolation. He had already turned negative, before his samples could be sent for genome sequencing.
"Though deriving any major conclusion from data of just seven patients would be like jumping the gun, still three fully or partially vaccinated patients of the new variant turning COVID negative without reporting any complications under home isolation in Ujjain and Bhopal, gives us hope that vaccination might be working against newest variant also. We’re further speeding up vaccination exercise, till date we’ve administered single or double doses of the twin vaccines to around 30 per cent of the state’s population. We are targeting to render at least single doses to 50% of the state’s population by August 15,” he said.
After rendering over 11.37 lakh doses on Wednesday, the state administered around 7.40 lakh doses on Thursday, taking the total number of doses administered in the state so far to over 1.87 crore.