Even as Modasa continues to be in the grip of the ‘mutated’ Hepatitis B virus (HBV), seven more deaths and 23 new cases were reported in Sabarkantha district on Friday.

The deaths, the largest in a single day so far, has taken the total death toll in the district to 34 and the total number of people affected by the virus, to 108, since the first case was reported on February 6.

An expert team from the BJ Medical College in Ahmedabad along with Ahmedabad Civil Hospital Superintendent M M Anchalia, and Health Commissioner Amarjit Singh, reached Modasa on Friday to reinvestigate some of the suspected cases.

On Saturday, a team from the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD), Delhi will revisit Modasa and stay there for 10 days to carry out detailed investigations.

Of the seven deaths reported on Friday, five are from Modasa, while one each are from Meghraj and Bayar. The new cases of HBV have been reported from Modasa, Meghraj, Idar, Himmatnagar and Bayar. So far only one case has been reported from neighbouring Banaskantha.

Sabarkantha Chief District Health Officer HS Patel said: “The two teams are revisiting Modasa to carry out investigations to guide us on the line of action to be adopted.”

Initially, the outbreak, which started due to the use of infected needles and syringes, was suspected to be that of Hepatitis D, which has so far not been reported in the country.

But expert teams from Lucknow, Mumbai, NICD, Delhi and the National Institute of Virology, Pune (NIV) had negated that possibility.

On Thursday though, the NICD team confirmed one positive case of Hepatitis D.