JAIPUR: The state reported its first case of Delta plus variant from Bikaner on Friday.
The health department was in a tizzy after they received confirmation from the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, that the sample of a 65-year-old woman from Bikaner had tested positive for the variant.
The woman has already taken two doses of Covid vaccine before she was found positive on June 1.
Her sample was randomly sent by the Bikaner Medical College to NIV.
With this, Rajasthan has entered the list of states found with cases of this variant.
So far, 20 cases have been found in Maharashtra, nine in Tamil Nadu, seven in Madhya Pradesh, three in Kerala, two each in Punjab and Gujarat, and one each in Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Jammu and Karnataka.
The chief medical and health officer(CMHO) of Bikaner has been informed of the development.
“She is a resident of Bangla colony in Bikaner and is living with her husband,” said an officer with the health department.
“The sample of the woman was sent to NIV on June 1 and found positive for Delta plus,” said Ravi Prakash Sharma, director, rural health.
“The husband of the woman was found positive for Covid on May 30.
As a part of contact tracing exercise, we took her sample.
Both were under home isolation and had very mild symptoms.
Her sample was randomly sent to NIV.
She has told us that she received her second dose of vaccine on May 19,” said Dr O P Chahar, CMHO, Bikaner, to TOI after visiting the woman on Friday evening.“She is doing fine and has gone to a hospital for normal follow-up on blood pressure and other medical issues.
We have picked up nine samples from her locality.
We will send them to Jaipur for further testing,” he said, adding that new samples of people found positive over the past one month from Bikaner would be send for testing.