Mumbai has recorded its first death due to the Delta Plus variant with a 63-year-old woman in Ghatkopar succumbing to it in July.
This is the second death reported in Maharashtra due to the Delta Plus variant. The first was an 80-year-old woman from Ratnagiri, who succumbed on June 13.
The death of the Mumbai woman was found to have been caused by Delta Plus variant only on August 11. That is when the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) – after being informed by the state health department that a genome sequencing test on some Covid-19 patients had found seven persons carrying the variant in Mumbai – started contacting these patients.
The woman was one of them, and BMC officials were told by her family that she had died on July 27. Now, two of her contacts have also been found infected with the Delta Plus variant.
“The 63-year-old patient passed away after being infected by the Delta Plus variant. We conducted contact tracing of her close contacts, six among whom tested positive for Covid-19. Their samples were sent for whole genome sequencing and two of the contacts were detected with the Delta Plus variant. The results of others are awaited,” said Executive Health Officer Dr Mangala Gomare, who heads BMC’s public health department. This is the first case of Delta plus variant death in Mumbai, Gomare added.
The woman used to suffer from interstitial lung and obstructive airway diseases for which she was being administered oxygen at home. She had taken both her vaccine doses but tested positive on July 21. On July 24, she was shifted to a hospital and passed away three days later.
Dr Mahendra Khandade, medical officer (Health) of N ward told HT, “The deceased was first admitted to Godrej Memorial Hospital in Vikhroli. When her parameters started falling, her family members admitted her to Breach Candy hospital where she died.”
Delta Plus is a mutation of the highly transmissible Delta variant of Sars-CoV-2 (B.1.617.2). Twenty new cases of Delta Plus variant were reported across the state on Wednesday, of which seven were from Mumbai and six each from Pune and Thane. The total count has reached 65.
Across Maharashtra, 13 cases of Delta Plus variant have been reported from Jalgaon, followed by Ratnagiri (12), Mumbai (11), Pune and Thane (6 each) as well as one case each in Chandrapur, Akola, Sindhudurg, Sangli, Nandurbar, Aurangabad, Kolhapur and Beed districts. Two cases each were reported in Gondia, Nanded and Raigad while three were recorded in Palghar.
Of the 65 cases, 32 people infected with Delta Plus are men. The maximum number of cases (33) have been reported in the 19-45 age group, while 17 were in the 46-60 age group. Seven children aged below 18 and eight people above 60 also tested positive for Delta Plus variant.