Eleven cases of the Kappa variant of COVID-19 have been detected in Rajasthan, said State Health Minister Raghu Sharma on Tuesday, July 13. Addressing a press briefing last week, Dr VK Paul, Member-Health, NITI Aayog had said that the Kappa variant of COVID-19 is a “variant of interest” and it is not a new variant as cases have been reported in the country before.
He further informed that Kappa variant is of much less intensity and was earlier reported in February and March. According to Sharma, 11 cases of the Kappa Covid-19 variant have been detected in the state, of which four cases each are from its capital Jaipur and Alwar, two from Barmer, and one from Bhilwara. Of these, nine samples returned positive test result for the Kappa variant from Delhi, while two tested positive at Sawai Man Singh (SMS) Hospital in Jaipur, Sharma elaborated further. Earlier, Uttar Pradesh reported two cases of this variant as genome sequencing of 109 samples, conducted at Lucknow’s King George’s Medical College, returned positive result for the Kappa variant in two samples while the remaining 107 were found positive with the Delta variant .
Kappa is not a new strain. First detected in October 2020 by India, the Kappa variant is designated as a variant of interest and is identified as B.1.617.1, as per the World Health Organization (WHO) website. While it was already known last year, the Kappa variant was designated as a variant of interest around 5 months after its detection on April 4, 2021.
