Mizoram reported at least three different variants of COVID-19 among 75 new cases, a health department official said.
State Nodal Officer and official spokesperson on COVID-19 Dr. Pachuau Lalmalsawma said that 73 cases of highly transmissible Delta variant (B.1.617.2), and one each case of United Kingdom's Alpha (B.1.1.7) and Eta (B.1.525) variants were found from 100 samples through whole-genome sequencing.
Dr. Lalmalsawma said that the samples were sent to the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics (NIBMG), Kalyani in West Bengal in June this year.
"Of the 100 samples, 73 were found to be Delta variant of COVID-19, one Alpha variant and another Eta variant of COVID-19," he said.
Of the 73 cases of Delta variant, 56 were reported from Aizawl district, nine from Lunglei district, five from Kolasib district, and three from Serchhip district in Mizoram, he said
Both Alpha and Eta variants were reported from Aizawl district, he said.
He said that 70 samples from Aizawl district and 10 each from Lunglei, Kolasib and Serchhip districts were collected and sent to NIBMG for genome sequencing last month.
Earlier on June 18, Mizoram had reported four cases of Delta variants from 217 samples sent in April.
However, all four patients from Aizawl district have been fully recovered from the infections.
According to Pachuau, at least 69 samples were sent for whole genome sequencing to NIBMG in March, 217 samples in April and 100 in June.
Besides, 150 more samples were sent on July 15 and the results are awaited.
He said the government is making massive efforts to find out presence of any other variant of COVID-19 in the state.
The mortality rate among patients infected with Delta variant is 0.1 percent, 2 percent for Alpha variant and 2.7 per cent for Eta variant, he said.
