Cases of Omicron XBB.1.5 in India sparked concern because this sub-variant is the most common among Covid infections in the United States.
However, officials rule out any immediate cause for concern because the infected people are recovering at home.
According to officials, those infected with Omicron XBB.1.5 are being treated at home and are recovering well. While Rajasthan reported one case of Omicron XBB.1.5 variant in Jaipur on Wednesday, Gujarat reported three more cases, two from Ahmedabad and one from Anand. Another case was reported from Karnataka.
According to representatives of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, both of the two infected individuals in Ahmedabad have a history of international travel. A 62-year-old man who had just returned from the US was one of them. One more was a female. They were placed in residential isolation to recover. Because Omicron XBB.1.5 is the most common subvariant among US Covid infections, the recent cases of this infection have caused alarm.
The Sikar, Rajasthan, resident who was infected had just returned from the USA, according to the state’s medical department. According to information provided by Dr. Sudhir Bhandari, vice chancellor of the Rajasthan University of Health Sciences and chair of the State Advisory Committee for Corona, the patient’s samples were sent to SMS Medical College, Jaipur, for genome sequencing.
Dr. Bhandari added that the medical department is looking into the patient’s entire travel history as well as anyone they have already come into contact with. The Medical Department will also issue a health bulletin about this soon, he said. There was no need for concern because the infected people were being kept in their homes and were not experiencing any new complications, according to officials.
In accordance with Rajasthan’s regulations, samples of patients travelling from abroad were sent for genome sequencing as a result of the recent Covid scare in the nation. The patient who had a positive test had arrived in Jaipur from the USA. The coronavirus subvariant XBB.1.5, which is a subvariant of the Omicron variant, has been linked to several cases in the US. This variant makes up about 40% of cases in America. In comparison to the BQ1 variant, this variant spreads 120% faster.
The state’s medical department has been placed on alert after the new variant was confirmed. This is the fifth case of the Omicron XBB.1.5 variant to be reported in India, based on data from INSACOG (Indian SARS-COV-2 Genomics Consortium).