The Union health ministry on Friday said 48 cases of Delta Plus variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus have been found in the country. Cases are spread across 11 states including Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Gujarat, Kerala, Andhra Prdesh, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Rajasthan, Jammu and Karnataka.
During the press conference on Friday, ICMR Director General Dr Balram Bhargava stressed that even though India has registered some cases of the Delta Plus variant, they have been "very localised. The central government has declared the 'Delta Plus' variant of the virus causing Covid-19 as a 'variant of concern' in India.
The National Centre for Disease Control director Dr Sujeet Kumar Singh however assured that the plus in the name of Delta Plus does not denote more virulence and does not mean that it is stronger than Delta. The plus only denotes an existing variant.