Though the first confirmed BA.4 and BA.5 variants of the Sars-CoV-2 have been detected in India from Hyderabad and Tamil Nadu respectively, these do not yet pose a concern as its other variant, BA.2, an offshoot of Omicron, continues to be dominant in India, already prevalent widely across the country, said the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) in its latest bulletin.
“BA.2.10 and BA.2.12 are BA.2 sub-lineages that have been detected and many old BA.2 sequences have been reclassified into these new sub-lineages. So far these sub-lineages are not reported to be associated with increased severity of disease,” said INSACOG in its latest bulletin on results of genome sequencing. According to data submitted to GSAID during the past four weeks, 773 samples were of the Omicron variant, making it about 97.2% of the total submitted samples of the said variant. “Suspected recombinant sequences are under further analysis,” said the consortium in the bulletin.
The BA.4 variant was detected earlier this month in Hyderabad in samples taken from a traveller from South Africa, where this strain of Omicron has been causing the current Covid-19 wave, people aware of the matter said, adding that this information is subject to an official confirmation.