Highly contagious delta (B.1.617.2) COVID-19 strain detected in Colombo

Health authorities have detected the highly transmissible B.1.617.2 (Delta or Indian variant) of SARS-Cov-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in five samples collected from Colombo, an official said.

Dr Chandima Jeewandara of the University of Sri Jayawardenapura said the strain was detected in samples collected from Aramaya Place in Dematagoda.

Jeewndara is Director of the Allergy Immunology and Cell Biology Unit of the Department of Immunology and Molecular Medicine, University of Sri Jayewardenepura. His department does genome sequencing of samples to test for variants of SARS-CoV-2.

“An usual outbreak was detected in the Aramaya place, Colombo 9 (samples which were not giving the S drop, which is characteristically seen with the alpha variant with the Taqpath qRT-PCR), ” Jeewandaara said.

“Nine samples from this area, with other samples from other areas of CMC, Karapitiya and Batticaloa were sequenced,” he added.

The Delta strain was detected in all five samples collected at Aramaya place while the B.1.1.7 (alpha/UK variant) was detected in samples collected from Karapitiya, Baticola, Colombo 6, Colombo 8 and Colombo 10.

“The delta variant is 50 percent more transmissible than the current dominant alpha variant in Sri Lanka,” Jeewandara said.

The new strain is more severe and capable of “evading one dose vaccine”, he added.

The university will issue a full report on the matter soon, said Jeewandara.

Earlier the delta variant was only detected in a quarantine centre, and no community transmission was detected until June 16.

Sri Lanka’s health authorities have been accused of reducing PCR tests and not focusing on random tests.

(ECONOMYNEXT)