Highly contagious Delta variant victim surfaces from Kahathuduwa

By Rathindra Kuruwita

A person who contracted the highly contagious Indian strain, or the Delta variant of COVID-19, had been found from Jayaliyagama, Kahathuduwa, the MOH there Danuka Pathmaraja told the media yesterday.

The 47-year-old man works at a prominent construction firm, located at Slave Island, Colombo. The patient was sent to a treatment centre in Polonnaruwa. About 50 of his associates have been quarantined and the area has been isolated.

“We suspect that he contracted the virus at the construction site. Luckily, he has not been in contact with his neighbours very much. However, we are doing 100 random PCR tests in the area. We have isolated this area until we complete the testing,” Pathmaraja said.

With this detection, the number of people infected with the Delta variant has increased to eight.

Meanwhile, Director of the Department of Immunology and Molecular Medicine of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura Dr. Chandima Jeewandara said that they were currently sequencing 100 samples from those who had tested COVID-19 positive to identify what variants they had contracted. The results would be released within a week, he said.

“These samples will cover the entire island,” he said. The University of Sri Jayewardenepura is the only Sri Lankan institution that conducts gene sequencing in the country. WHO recommends that at least 1% of total COVID-19 positive samples should be gene sequenced.