Mumbai, Aug 24 (IANS): In an alarming development, the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Monday revealed that Mumbai has a staggering 128 patients of the Delta Plus variant of Covid-19 besides of Alpha, Kappa and other strains, while 27 more were reported from rest of Maharashtra.

With this, the number of Delta Plus cases in the state has now reached 231.

The BMC's latest figures emerged from the tests conducted on the first batch of 188 samples at the civic-run Kasturba Hospital.

While 128 patients are found infected with the Delta Plus, 2 were Alpha types, 24 were Kappa types, and the rest showed common Covid-19 virus infections.

The tests were conducted at the state of the art Next Generation Genome Sequencing Lab at the Kasturba Hospital, inaugurated by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray earlier this month.

The state Health Department said that another 27 Delta Plus cases were reported, taking the state total to 231, besides five deaths till date - two from Ratnagiri and one each from Mumbai, Raigad, and Beed.

The new cases are from Amravati and Gadchiroli, six each, Nagpur five, Ahmednagar four, Yavatmal three, Nashik two, and Bhandara one.

Exercising extreme precautions, the Health Department has launched a search for close contacts of all infectees on a war footing, besides ascertaining their travel history, vaccination status, recent medical status and other relevant details to prevent more infections, said the officials.

In view of the latest results, the BMC has made a fresh appeal to the people to strictly adhere to all Covid-19 protocols like wearing face-masks, maintain physical distancing, using sanitisers, ensuring hygiene, etc.