jamesdpur the tata main hospital tmh has reported 47 delta variant b16172 of the covid19 virus during the second wave so far the highly contagious variant of the virus was verified after samples were sent to an odishabased laboratory for examination officials saidwe had sent 100 samples to the laboratory and 47 were found to be delta variant said rajan choudhary advisor medical services tata steeldelta variant has been declared as highly contagious by the world health organisation who and its finding in the state is a concernchoudhary said two doses of the vaccine available in the country currently covaxin and covishield is still effective against the variant and give protection to a considerable extent delta variant is believed to show increased transmissibility or detrimental change in epidemiology choudhary said referring to various findingsthe official further said the second wave of the pandemic is fast declining in the district in tmh the positive rate has declined to 206 from 1713 a few weeks ago choudhary saidhe said only one covid patient is currently admitted to the critical care unit of the hospital while 11 others are undergoing treatment at the covid wardlast week the hospital had 15 covid cases compared to 12 currently the cases have come down but theres no lowering the guard the safety protocol should be followed choudhary stressed