However, there have been no reports of deaths or increased transmission in areas where the variants were detected, it said.
Posted Date – 11:40 PM, Mon – 1/9/23
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New Delhi: The Integrated Disease Surveillance Program (IDSP) sentinel site submitted 324 Covid-19 positive samples to 22 INSACOG laboratories for sequencing between December 29 and January 7, showing the presence of all Omicron variants such as BA. 2 and its sublines, including BA. There are 2.75, XBB (37), BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 (5) among others in the community, the United Health Ministry said on Monday.
However, there have been no reports of deaths or increased transmission in areas where the variants were detected, it said.
The Union Health Department began random testing of international passengers arriving at various airports on December 24. Since then, a total of 13,57,243 international passengers have arrived at Indian airports on 7,786 flights, of which 29,113 randomly selected passengers underwent RT-PCR testing.
A total of 183 samples were found to be positive and subsequently sent to 13 INSACOG laboratories for whole genome sequencing. Sequencing of 50 samples revealed Omicron and Omicron sublines, including recombinant variants. XBB (11), BQ.1.1 (12) and BF7.4.1 (1) were the main variants detected in these international passenger samples.
