New Delhi: Genomic sequencing of Covid positive samples collected from sentinel sites has revealed the community presence of all Omicron variants in India. From December 29 to January 7, Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) sentinel sites referred 324 Covid-19 positive samples for sequencing to 22 INSACOG laboratories.
"Sentinel sequencing of these positive samples lifted from the community revealed the presence of all the Omicron variants like BA.2 and its sub-lineage including BA.2.75, XXB (37), BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 (5) etc," the Health Ministry said. It, however, said that no mortality or rise in transmission was reported in the areas where these variants were detected.
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Union Ministry of Health and Welfare has initiated random testing of international travelers arriving at various airports from December 24. "Since then, 13,57,243 International passengers arrived in India from 7786 flights at various airports out of which 29,113 randomly selected passengers were tested by RT-PCR. A total of 183 samples were found positive which were subsequently sent for whole genome sequencing to 13 INSACOG labs," the Health Ministry said.
Sequencing of 50 samples revealed Omicron and Omicron sub lineage including recombinant variants like XBB (11), BQ.1.1. (12) and BF7.4.1 (1) were the main variants detected in these samples of international passengers.
Union Health Ministry is keeping a close watch on the Covid19 situation in various States through the IDSP network, particularly on the transmission and hospitalization trends.
