Coronavirus' delta variant now starts to cripple Asia-Pacific region, restrictions imposed across borders

What some might consider the third wave has hit Asia-Pacific regions.

According to a report by Times of India, Moscow on Sunday recorded its worst daily coronavirus death toll and Indonesia saw more than 21,000 in a day, also a record.

Russia as a whole has seen an explosion of new infections since mid-June driven by the Delta variant.

More than 110 Covid-19 cases have been reported in Sydney since a driver for an international flight crew tested positive in mid-June for the Delta variant. Australia’s northern city of also entered a separate snap 48-hour lockdown on Sunday after a handful of cases were linked to a coronavirus outbreak on a remote gold mine. New Zealand extended restrictions in the region for two days despite finding no evidence yet that an Australian tourist with Covid19 spread the virus while visiting the city last weekend.

More than 21 cases of the Delta plus variant of Covid-19, considered highly infectious, have been reported in Maharashtra threatening to massively hinder the state’s fight against the virus as experts warn that this variant may trigger a third wave of the pandemic in the state.

Kerala, Karnataka, and Madhya Pradesh, too, have reported cases of this deadlier variety.

The new Delta plus variant has been formed due to a mutation in the Delta or B.1.617.2 variant, first identified in India and one of the drivers of the deadly second wave.

It has been detected in nine countries, including UK, Portugal, Switzerland, Poland, Japan, Nepal, China, and Russia, apart from India.

As India was hit by the second wave of Covid-19 hit earlier this year, experts partly blamed it on a triple mutant of the novel coronavirus of B.1.617.2 lineage, detected in India at the end of last year. The World Health Organization (WHO) named it Delta on May 31. Later, the highly transmissible variant of Sars-CoV-2 mutated further into Delta Plus of AY.1 lineage. Scientists added that there is no immediate cause for concern as its incidence in the country is still low.

The new strain Delta Plus contains a K417N mutation in its spike protein, which has been formally designated B.1.617.2.1. According to media reports, the first sequence of this type was discovered in Europe in March 2021.

The National Chemical Laboratory (CSIR-NCL) is now studying the Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg specimens from Maharashtra to determine the presence of the Delta Plus variation. These two regions specifically have the highest proportion of active infections in India.