Tura, June 24: The much feared variant of the coronavirus, now called the Delta variant, has clearly set foot across Garo Hills spreading like a wildlife as the infection rates continue to go up even after containment measures, lockdowns and isolation efforts being taken up wherever infections have cropped up.

On Thursday, one of the largest number of infections in a single place was detected by health and surveillance teams out on screening patrol.

Seventy people from the village of Daren Agal were found carrying the covid-19 infection, the largest in recent days and weeks in a single cluster, compelling authorities to quickly put in place containment measures to prevent further spread.

In just one day, West Garo Hills registered 131 new positive cases raising the number of active cases to 633, clearly indicating the extent to which the new variant is spreading.

The pandemic also took the life of an 86 year old woman from Upper Rongjeng of East Garo Hills district who tested positive for the disease while undergoing treatment in Tura Civil hospital on Thursday morning.

Two days ago, a 38 year old owner of a hotel in Williamnagar died while being transported to Tura for medical treatment of covid-19.