Amid witnessing a sharp decline in the COVID-19 cases after bracing up the horrendous second wave of the pandemic, Tamil Nadu has reported its first case of the Delta Plus variant of the pandemic on Wednesday. The Delta variant was first discovered in India and has become a global concern for its severity. The experts say that the Delta plus variant could be pervasive during the third wave of the pandemic.

According to reports, the first case of the Delta Plus variant was a nurse in the state and she got recovered from the viral infection. Tamil Nadu Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan has on Wednesday said that the health department has sent 1,159 samples in May to the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomic Consortia, a consortium of 28 labs tasked with genome sequencing of the virus causing COVID-19, and the results of 772 samples had come on Wednesday. 

Of these results, one of the samples had confirmed to have contracted the Delta Plus variant and this case belongs to Chennai. It has pertained to a 32-year-old woman, who was employed as a staff nurse at a hospital. Radhakrishnan further said, "We have seen the British variant and double mutant variant. There is no need to panic as of now." He further pressed the need to follow the COVID-19 preventive measures including wearing face masks, avoiding crowds, and getting vaccinated. 

Tamil Nadu Health Minister M Subramanian had also asserted that there is no need to worry about the emergence of the Delta plus variant. According to the state health department, Tamil Nadu has reported 6,596 fresh COVID-19 cases, 10,432 discharges, and 166 deaths on Wednesday. Overall, the state had recorded 24,43,415 cases so far as of Wednesday of which 52,884 are active, 23,58,785 have been discharged, and 31,746 had succumbed to the viral infection. 

Tamil Nadu has tested 3,16,75,744 samples till Wednesday and the state has been recording more single-day discharges than the fresh cases for the past few days amid going through the lockdown. Earlier, the World Health Organization (WHO) has spelt the Delta variant as a variant of concern and on Tuesday, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan had said that the Delta variant was reported in 80 countries including India, and echoed WHO's stand that Delta variant is a variant of concern. 

According to reports, the first case of the Delta plus variant of COVID-19 was first detected in India in Jammu and Kashmir. Later on Wednesday, Karnataka had reported two cases of Delta plus variant and Tamil Nadu also had reported its first case. The reports say that the country has seen over 50 cases of Delta plus variant and cases were prominently recorded in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Kerala.