Maharashtra has reported four patients with B.A.4 variant and three cases of B.A.5 variants of the Omicron sub-lineage of Covid-19 for the first time. An official of the state health department on Saturday said all of them were from Pune and had only mild symptoms and were treated at home.
BA.4 and BA.5 are subvariants of the Omicron variant that was behind driving the third wave of the Covid pandemic in January of this year. These sub-lineages of Omicron were detected in April in some parts of the world including South Africa, but until now no cases had been detected in Maharashtra.
The Institute of Science Education and Research had conducted whole-genome sequencing and its finding has been confirmed by the Faridabad-based Indian Biological Data Centre.
Four patients have the infection of the B.A.4 variant while others have contracted the B.A.5. Four of them are men and three women. Four patients are above 50 years of age while two are in the 20-40 age group while one patient is a nine-year-old child, the official said.
All six adults have completed both the dosages of the Covid-19 vaccine while one was jabbed with the booster shot too. The child is unvaccinated. All of them had mild symptoms of coronavirus and were treated successfully in home isolation, the official said, adding their samples were taken between May 4 and 18.
Of these, two patients had travelled to South Africa and Belgium, while three went to Kerala and Karnataka. The other two patients had no recent travel history.
Meanwhile, the state reported 529 new cases of Covid-19 but no virus-related death in the last 24 hours, the state health department said today. The tally of infections in the state rose to 78,85,394, while the death toll remained unchanged at 1,47,858. The state had recorded 536 new cases and zero deaths the day before.
First Detected in Africa
The subvariants BA.4 alongside BA.5 were first identified in South Africa in January this year, while India was undergoing the third wave of Covid-19. BA.4 and BA.5 then went on to become the dominant variants in circulation in that country collectively replacing 55 per cent of the other Covid-19 variants over the next four months according to the National Institute of Communicable Disease-South Africa.
Less Severe Than Omicron But More Contagious
Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 have been detected in more than a dozen countries driving Covid outbreaks across the world, according to the World Health Organization.
According to WHO’s technical lead on Covid Maria Van Kerkhove, at least 16 countries have reported about 700 cases of BA.4, while more than 300 cases of BA.5 have been found across at least 17 countries, CNBC had reported.
The new sub-variants do not cause more severe infections as the original Omicron strain, but they appear to be more contagious, Van Kerkhove was quoted as saying during a Q&A on the organization’s social media platforms on Wednesday.
The European CDC had last week declared the two as ‘variants of concern’, anticipating “a significant overall increase in Covid-19 cases in the coming weeks and months.”
(with inputs from PTI)
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