The current spike in COVID-19 cases is due to Omicron sub-lineages, mainly BA.2 and BA.2.38, and BA.4 and BA.5 in some parts of the country, reported ANIQuoting officials.
According to the news agency, India’s covid The Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG), a genome sequencing facility, reviews genomic surveillance data on Friday.
It found that 60% of the cases had BA.2 sub-variant and 33% had BA.2.38. However, the percentage of BA.4 and BA.5 is still very low.
The consortium has said that the cities and states where clusters of infection have been found – Mumbai, Trivandrum, Puducherry, Mizoram, North-East, Delhi – NCR such as Gurugram, Faridabad and Kerala – most of the cases are of BA.2 and BA. .2.38 Sub-Variants.
“These variants are indicating high transmission efficiency and currently dominate most of the places. Most cases are of mild infection, including cold, cough, fever and body aches.
The official said that no new form of the virus has been found so far.
Meanwhile, states and union territories have been asked to submit “large numbers” of samples for whole genome sequencing from districts and regions that have seen a surge in Covid-19 cases over a period of seven days.
“The idea behind asking states and union territories to send samples in large numbers is to correlate it with the current circulating sub-lines of Omicron and the current epidemiological picture,” the news agency said. PTI Quoting an official.
“In addition, we want to see if we are missing any important clues about new subtypes during routine sequencing through sentinel monitoring,” he said.
INSACOG is a joint initiative of the Department of Biotechnology under the Ministries of Science and Technology, and carries out genome sequencing of the virus to understand how it spreads and evolves.
kovid status in the country
Thirty-two districts in India, including 11 in Kerala and five in Maharashtra, are reporting weekly Covid positivity rates of more than 10%, while in 35 districts, including nine in Delhi, weekly positivity ranges between 5 and 10%.
India reported a one-day increase of 13,216 new coronavirus infections, taking the total number of Covid-19 cases to 4,32,83,793, while active cases rose to 68,108, according to the health ministry’s data updated on Saturday morning.
The death toll has risen to 5,24,840 with 23 new deaths.
According to health experts, though there has been an increase in cases, there has been no increase in hospitalizations or deaths. Also, the increase is limited to a few districts.