50 contacts of new Delta variant traced in India
Fifty contacts have been identified and their samples are being tested, said Indore chief medical and health officer (CMHO) Dr BS Saitya.
Health authorities are urgently trying to trace contacts of five of the seven people detected with the new AY.4 variant of Covid-19.
Five of the seven people with the AY.4 variant, a sub-lineage of Covid Delta, are civilians. While the other two, who tested positive, are senior army officers.
"All 50 contacts are asymptomatic and haven't had any symptoms in the past month," the CMHO said, adding that the samples of the Army officers' contacts will be collected by the military.
Classified as a 'variant of interest', the AY.4 variant was first reported in Maharashtra in April.
The seven AY.4 infections were detected in a genome sequencing report released by Times of India on 16 October.
The samples had been taken in September after a spurt in Covid infections, most of them in the Mhow area.