Official sources said on Wednesday that three cases of Omicron subvariant BF.7, apparently affecting the current surge of Covid cases in China, have been detected in India so far. , photo credit: KR Deepak
allay fears about BF.7 variant of coronavirusOn 23 December a leading scientist said that it is a sub-variant of the Omicron strain and India need not worry too much about its severity on the population.
talking to PTIRakesh Mishra, director, Tata Institute for Genetics and Society (TIGS), Bangalore, however, cautioned that it is always advisable to wear face masks and avoid unnecessary crowds.
Read also: Omicron subvariant BF.7, linked to China spike, was first detected in India in July
The former director of the CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology further said that China is witnessing an unprecedented surge in COVID-19 cases as the neighboring country has not gone through the different waves of infection that India faced.
“It is a sub-variant of Omicron. The main features will be like Omicron except for some minor changes, there is no major difference. Most of us have gone through the Omicron wave. So, we don’t have to worry about Essentially, it’s the same virus,” he said.
China is experiencing a surge in infections due to “Zero-Covid Policy”The scientist said, whereby authorities block apartment buildings or even cordon off neighborhoods after a resident tests positive, causing a lot of inconvenience to people.
Read also: India to conduct random screening of international passengers arriving from China
Mr. Mishra said that the Chinese population is not exposed to natural infection and they have not utilized the time to vaccinate the elderly people.
“So what is happening to those people, since they have not been vaccinated, their symptoms are severe. has been,” he said of the situation in China.
According to him, most Indians have acquired hybrid immunity, which means that immunity developed through vaccines and natural infection also protect them from different COVID-19 variants.
The scientist said existing vaccines in India are good at preventing or thwarting individual Omicron variants as several studies indicate that even in the large wave of Omicron earlier this year, there were not many hospitalizations in India .
Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan wrote a letter to all the states and union territories on 20 December in view of the sudden spurt in cases coming up in Japan, the United States, the Republic of Korea, Brazil and China.
He requested them to ensure that as far as possible samples of all positive cases are sent, on a daily basis, to the designated INSACOG (Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomic Consortium) genome sequencing laboratories which are mapped across states and union territories. have been done.