After Delta Plus, Uttar Pradesh reports first case of Kappa COVID-19 variant, patient dies

`The patient died in the course of treatment on June 14. He had no travel history,` head of microbiology department at BRD Medical College said.

New Delhi: After the first two cases of Delta Plus variant were detected in Uttar Pradesh, now Kappa strain of COVID-19 has been identified in the state. As per IANS report, a 66-year-old man, who tested positive for Kappa variant in UP’s Sant Kabir Nagar has died. 

The strain was detected following the collection of his sample on June 13 during the routine genome sequencing exercise and sent to CSIR`s Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, New Delhi. 

Amresh Singh, head of microbiology department at BRD Medical College, said the man had tested positive for COVID-19 on May 27 and was shifted to the medical college on June 12. "The patient died in the course of treatment on June 14. He had no travel history," he said. 

Earlier, two cases of the Delta Plus variant of COVID-19 were detected in Uttar Pradesh, out of which one of the patients lost their life. The two cases of the new Delta variant, labelled variant of concern, were found in Gorakhpur and Deoria districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh. Among the two cases, the 66-year-old resident of Deoria died during treatment. The other patient is a 23-year-old resident doctor at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College, Gorakhpur. Both of them did not have any travel history. 

On Thursday (July 8), 112 fresh cases and 10 COVID-related deaths were recorded in the state, which pushed the caseload to 17,07,044 and the death toll reached 22,676, as per health bulletin. 

(With agency inputs)