Cases of coronavirus infection are dipping in India but at least five new sub-variants of the Omicron variant have been detected in different states over the past few days.
So far, severe disease has not been reported due to these sub-variants, “but many times the behaviour of the virus is not known, so it is important to be careful,” said top sources in the Health Ministry.
The ministry is monitoring the rate of hospitalisation, ICU care need, and deaths. A meeting was held yesterday with different departments that monitor these data.
The sub-variants —BF.7, BQ.1, XBB, and some combinations — have been reported from Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka so far.
In China, where the pandemic began, new sub-variants have led to recent increase in Covid, said a ministry source.
Cases across China are triggered by BF.7. The World Health Organization had given out a warning against the highly infectious sub-variant. It forecasts this sub-variant to become a new dominant strain of the virus.
India saw a single-day rise of 1,946 coronavirus infections, while the active cases declined to 25,968, according to government data updated on Wednesday.
The number of Covid-related deaths climbed to 5,28,923 with 10 fatalities, which include six from the past few days reported today by the Kerala government. Of the four new fatalities, two are from Maharashtra and one each from Haryana and West Bengal.
The daily positivity rate was recorded at 0.75 per cent, while the weekly positivity rate was 1.01 per cent, the health ministry said.
