‘Delta variant found in samples of patients’

LAHORE: University of Health Sciences (UHS) Vice-Chancellor Professor Javed Akram has said that all variants of coronavirus, including delta (Indian), have been found in the current samples of Covid patients. In a statement issued on Saturday, Prof Javed Akram said that the university had data on about 300 samples for the months of June and July.

"According to the latest data, the delta or Indian variant of the virus has been found in 14 per cent of the samples," Professor Javed Akram said and added that most of the samples were found to have Alpha or UK type of virus which had a rate of 57pc. He made it clear that the university data on the World Health Organisation's website was for the month of April, so it showed a delta variant rate of zero. "Alpha, Beta, Delta and Eta variants have been found in the latest data", he said.

Prof Javed Akram said that Dr Shah Jahan, associate professor, Department of UHS Immunology Department, was researching in this regard. He said that all data had been processed by Dr Shah Jahan in collaboration with the UK's Quadrum Institute and the whole genome sequencing method was being used for this

purpose.

Professor Javed Akram stated that the latest data would be released in a few days.