All Omicron variants & its sub-lineages present in India: Govt

The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has initiated random testing of international travellers arriving at various airports since December 24, 2022.

New Delhi, Jan 09: Sentinel sequencing of 324 COVID Positive Samples revealed presence of all Omicron Variants like BA.2 and its sub-lineages, including BA.2.75, XBB (37), BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 (5) among others, the health ministry said on Monday.

No mortality or rise in transmission were reported in the areas where these variants were detected.

"Since 29th December, 2022 to 7th January, 2023, Integrated Disease Surveillance Program (IDSP) sentinel sites referred 324 COVID19 positive samples for sequencing to 22 INSACOG labs," health ministry said in a statement.

Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has initiated random testing of international travelers arriving at various Airports from 24th of December, 2022.

Since then, 13,57,243 International passengers arrived in India from 7786 flights at various airports out of which 29,113 randomly selected passengers were tested by RT-PCR.

A total of 183 samples were found positive which were subsequently sent for whole genome sequencing to 13 INSACOG labs. Sequencing of 50 samples revealed omicron and omicron sub-lineages including recombinant variants. XBB (11), BQ.1.1 (12) and BF7.4.1 (1) were the main variants detected in these samples of international passengers.

Union Health Ministry is keeping a close watch on the COVID19 situation in various States through the IDSP network particularly on the transmission and hospitalization trends.

India has reported 170 new cases of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Monday morning. The country recorded 163 new Covid cases on Sunday.

The active cases now constitute 0.01 per cent of the total infections, while the country's COVID-19 recovery rate has increased to 98.80 per cent, according to the health ministry website.

India has stepped up surveillance for new variants of Covid -19 after a "sudden spurt" in cases in many countries, including China and the US.