At least four cases of the Omicron sub-variant BF.7, the Covid strain driving China's current surge of cases, have been detected in India so far. There is a lot of misinformation spreading on the internet. The Ministry of Health took to Twitter to debunk a particular message about the Covid XBB variant.
The health ministry shared detailed information about the latest coronavirus variant and called it "fake" and "misleading."
"Everyone is advised to wear a mask because the new variant of the COVID-Omicron XBB coronavirus is different, deadly and not easy to detect correctly," it says.
Check out the tweet here:
BF.7 is a sub-lineage of the Omicron variant BA.5, and has the strongest infection ability since it is highly transmissible, has a shorter incubation period, and has a higher capacity to cause reinfection or infect even those vaccinated, news agency PTI reported.
The high degree of spread in Chinese cities - including the capital city of Beijing - is also being attributed to a "low level of immunity", possibly due to previous infections.
When the first case of BF.7 infection showed up, health expert Dr Rajeev Jayadevan said, "Ever since Omicron arrived in November 2021, it has been giving off branches which divide into smaller branches. Of these, BA.2 and BA.5 proved to be stronger than the rest. BA.5.1.7 and BF.7 are names given to downstream descendants of BA.5."
India reported 129 fresh infections over the last 24 hours, as reported on Wednesday, and the number of active cases currently stands at 3,408. One death was recorded over the last 24 hours.
