New Delhi: Amid a hue and cry over the BF.7 variant of Covid19, the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomic Consortium (INSACOG) has said that XBB is the most prevalent sub-lineage (63.2 per cent) circulating all over India. “Omicron and its sub-lineages continue to be the dominant variant in India. XBB is the most prevalent sub-lineage (63.2 per cent) circulating all over India. BA.2.75 and BA.2.10 were also circulating to a lesser extent. Especially, in North-East India, BA.2.75 is the prevalent sub-lineage,” INSACOG said in its latest bulletin.
It said that any increase in disease severity or hospitalisation has not been observed over this period. Overall, the infection rate is below 500 per day. In the northern part of India, XBB was prevalent whereas, in the Eastern part, BA.2.75 was the prevalent sub-lineage. BA.2.10 and other Omicron sub-lineage frequency was lower last week.
“INSACOG is closely monitoring the situation concerning XBB and XBB.1,” the bulletin said. The INSACOG reports genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 by whole genome sequencing of samples from sentinel sites across the country and international passengers arriving in India. Globally, the number of new weekly cases decreased by three per cent during last week as compared to the previous week, with over 2.4 million new cases reported. The INSACOG said that the number of new weekly deaths decreased by 17 per cent as compared to the previous week.
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“During last week, BA.5 descendent lineages remained dominant, with a prevalence of 70.1 per cent, followed by BA.2 descendent lineages, with a prevalence of 10.5 per cent. BA.4 descendent lineages continued to decline in prevalence, going from 2.8 per cent to 2.0 per cent during the same reporting period,” the bulletin said.
Among the Omicron sub-variants under monitoring, an increase from 27.6 per cent to 36.2 per cent for BQ.1 and its descendent lineages was observed. “During the same period, the prevalence of XBB and its descendent lineages increased from 4.2 per cent to 5.0 per cent. BA.2.75 increased from 6.8 per cent to 7.8 per cent, while BA.4.6 decreased from 2.5 per cent to 1.7 per cent,” it said.
Meanwhile, sources in the Health Ministry ruled out the need for a second booster dose of Covid vaccine at present. “A fourth Covid shot is unwarranted at the moment as most people in the country are yet to receive their third dose,” sources said. Amid the shortage of Covid19 vaccine doses, the government has placed an order on the Serum Institute of India (SII) for 80 lakh doses of the Covishield vaccine, which the company will be supplied for free.
An official in the Health Ministry said that the government has informed the Serum Institute that it is ready to receive 80 lakh doses of Covid vaccine. Director, Government and Regulatory Affairs, SII, Prakash Kumar Singh, has recently written to Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan offering two crore free doses of the vaccine. The SII has so far supplied over 170 crore doses of Covishield to the government to be used in the national Covid-19 immunisation programme.
Sources said that SII presently has over 2.5 crore doses of vaccine in its stockpile. Interestingly, other vaccine manufacturers are awaiting procurement orders from the government. “We are going through a dynamic situation. We are also assessing the situation of booster uptake and then decide on the future course,” the official said.
