BENGALURU – India on Tuesday declared a new coronavirus variant to be of concern, and said nearly two dozen cases had been detected in three states.
The variant, identified locally as “Delta plus,” was found in 16 cases in the state of Maharashtra, Federal Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan told a news conference.
The ministry said Delta plus showed increased transmissibility and advised states to increase testing.
The original Delta variant that was first found in India has spread to at least 80 countries.
The World Health Organization said it is becoming the globally dominant version of the disease.
India has the second highest COVID-19 infections worldwide after the United States, with about 29.98 million cases and a death toll of almost 390,000.
In the US, infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said the Delta variant is the greatest threat to the United States’ effort to eradicate COVID-19 in its borders.
“The transmissibility is unquestionably greater” in the Delta variant than the original variant of COVID-19, Fauci said, adding that “it is associated with an increased disease severity.”
Fauci said the vaccines authorized in the United States, including the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, are effective against the new variant of COVID-19.
“We have the tools, so let’s use them and crush the outbreak,” Fauci said.
The United States is falling short of its goal of vaccinating 70% of adults by July 4 and will likely need a few additional weeks to hit that target, White House COVID-19 senior adviser Jeffrey Zients said during the press call.
More than 150 million people in the United States, or more than 45% of the population, have been fully vaccinated, according to federal data last updated on Monday.
The Delta variant contributed to a severe outbreak of COVID-19 in India during April and May that overwhelmed health services in the country and killed hundreds of thousands.
Images of funeral pyres blazing in car parks raised questions over the chaotic vaccine rollout.
On Monday, India vaccinated a record 8.6 million people as it began offering free shots to all adults, but experts doubted it could maintain that pace.
“This is clearly not sustainable,” Chandrakant Lahariya, an expert in public policy and health systems, told Reuters.
“With such one-day drives, many states have consumed most of their current vaccine stocks, which will affect the vaccination in days to follow.”
With the currently projected vaccine supply for the next few months, the maximum daily achievable rate is 4 to 5 million doses, Lahariya added.
The effort has so far covered about 5.5% of the 950 million people eligible, even though India is the world’s largest vaccine producer.
Since May, vaccinations have averaged fewer than 3 million doses a day, far less than the 10 million health officials say are crucial to protect the millions vulnerable to new surges.
Particularly in the countryside, where two-thirds of a population of 1.4 billion lives and the healthcare system is often overstretched, the drive has faltered, experts say.
Maintaining the pace will prove challenging when it comes to injecting younger people in such areas, Delhi-based epidemiologist Rajib Dasgupta said.
The capital is also facing difficulties. Authorities in New Delhi said more than 8 million residents had yet to receive a first dose and inoculating all adults there would take more than a year at the current pace.
India has been administering AstraZeneca’s vaccine, made locally by the Serum Institute of India, and a homegrown shot named Covaxin made by Bharat Biotech.
Last week, Serum Institute had said it planned to increase monthly production to around 100 million doses from July. Bharat now estimates it will make 23 million doses a month.
