Jaipur: The State government of Rajasthan on Tuesday detected the Kappa variant of COVID-19 in several parts of the state. Cases of the Kappa variant are detected in Alwar and Jaipur, two from Barmer and one is from Bhilwara.
Rajasthan Health Minister Raghu Sharma confirmed 11 cases of Kappa variant of coronavirus so far and informed that the Kappa variant ‘is a moderate form of the coronavirus’ as compared to its delta variant, which had fuelled India’s second wave of coronavirus.
Kappa Variant’s cases have been already detected in Tripura and Uttar Pradesh.
According to the media report, two samples in UP and 11 in Tripura were tested positive for the Kappa Covid-19 variant. B.1.617.1, also known as the Kappa variant, was first identified in India only, in October 2020.
According to the World Health Organization, the Kappa Variant of Covid-19 is a ‘Variant of interest’ (VOI).
On WHO’s list of SARS-CoV-2 variants, a VOI is a variant with genetic changes that are predicted or known to affect virus characteristics such as transmissibility, disease severity, immune escape, diagnostic or therapeutic escape.
The variant is also identified to cause significant community transmission or multiple COVID-19 clusters, in multiple countries with increasing relative prevalence alongside an increasing number of cases over time, or other apparent epidemiological impacts to suggest an emerging risk to global public health.
The central government is trying to vaccinate maximum people in minimal time. According to the data of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, India has vaccinated around 38.50 crores people with their first dose so far and around four million people receive vaccines daily.