India Reports First Case of Omicron Subvariant BA.4

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• May 20, 2022 | digital desk

This new strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, like the BA.2 subvariant, has been proven to be capable of immune evasion from previous infection and immunization.

Digital Desk: India reported the first case of BA.4, the subvariant of Omicron, on Thursday in Hyderabad through a genomic surveillance program.

Meanwhile, scientists from the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics (INSACOG) revealed in a statement that details of a BA.4 subvariant were entered on GISAID on May 9 from India. 

According to Money Control, another scientist from the Indian Council for Medical Research backed up this claim, saying that random cases of BA.4 have been identified in different cities across the country in recent days.

It should be highlighted that the new sub-variant, together with BA.5, has been responsible for a large number of new coronavirus infections in South Africa, as well as in the United States and the United Kingdom.

This new strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, like the BA.2 subvariant, has been proven to be capable of immune evasion from previous infection and immunization.

However, scientists believe that, given the widespread immunity of Indians, any new Covid19 outbreak will most likely remain at low levels.

"Over the last 6-7 months, the circulation of B.2.12.1 has been observed on a large scale in India, although it only created a localized rise in a few places at extremely low levels," an official from the National Centre for Disease Control, which oversees the INSACOG project, told Money Control.

"We foresee a similar mild surge in the following days but any substantial increase in hospitalization due to severe COVID-19 sickness is quite improbable," he added.