Guwahati, July 20: Assam’s female is maybe India’s first patient to be infected with both Alpha and Delta variants of SARS-CoV-2 at the same time.
Confirming the report, Dr. Biswajyoti Borkakoty said, “We have recently detected a case in which a lady doctor was infected by two different variants of the coronavirus at the same time. The lady doctor was vaccinated with both doses.”
Dr Biswajyoti Borkakoty is the nodal officer at the ICMR Regional Medical Research Centre (RMRC) at Lahowal in Assam’s Dibrugarh district.
The senior officer stated that the woman had tested positive for Covid-19 after her husband.
“When we tested her samples in our laboratory, we found that she was infected by both Alpha and Delta variants of SARS-CoV-2 at the same time. Her husband was infected by the Alpha variant. The samples of the doctor were collected twice to ascertain and reconfirm the double infection. It is, hence, confirmed that she was infected by both variants at the same time,” Dr Biswajyoti Borkakoty said.
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The doctor said that she was only mildly symptomatic and, therefore, did not require hospitalization.
Earlier, a 90-year-old woman in Belgium was reportedly infected by two variants – Alpha and Beta – simultaneously. She had not yet been vaccinated and died in March 2021.
Dr. Borkakoty clarified that no cases of the Delta Plus variant have been detected at ICMR-RMRC, Lahowal so far.
