Delta variant played a major role in the second COVID-19 wave that ravaged India, a government official said on Tuesday.
Dr VK Paul, Member-Health, Niti Aayog, said, "Delta variant played major role in 2nd wave. An additional mutation of this variant, known as Delta Plus, has been detected & submitted to global data system. It has been seen in Europe since March & was brought into public domain on June 13."
He said that the Delta Plus variant nullifies the use of monoclonal antibody. He added, "This (Delta Plus) is a variant of interest. It has not yet been classified as a variant of concern. As per data available in public domain, this variant nullifies the use of monoclonal antibody. We will study & learn more about this variant."
During the second wave of the pandemic, the government said, about 11.62 per cent cases were seen in the below 20 years age group, while it was 11.31 per cent during the first wave.
It also said that a sharp decline of 78 per cent has been noted since the highest reported weekly Covid case positivity rate of 21.4 per cent, which was recorded between May 4 and 10 during the second wave.
