State reports no new cases of BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants
Pune: After samples tested positive for the BA
Pune: After samples tested positive for the BA.4 and BA.5 sub variants of the Omicron strain in Pune last week, genome sequencing at BJ General Medical College (BJGMC) has not detected any more cases with the same variant. Health department officials said elaborate testing is on at the medical centre.
Dr Rajesh Karyakarte, head, microbiology department, BJGMC, had said that these variants could evade immunity as all the patients, except a child, has got both doses of the vaccine, but were fully stable and require to be home isolated.
“After the previous cases were detected, there has been no new case under genome sequencing of this variant. We are genome sequencing samples also,” said Dr Karyakarte.
Health department officials confirmed that no new case of variant was detected as of Thursday.
According to health department officials, seven cases of Covid-19 subvariant BA.4 and BA.5 of Omicron variant were detected in Pune for the first time in the last week of May. The infected showed mild symptoms and were treated at home
Mumbai is also reporting a surge in Covid cases. On Wednesday, Maharashtra reported more than 1,000 infections for the first time since February. Mumbai alone accounted for over 700 of these new cases, according to the health department officials. However, the Covid count for Pune city has been steady.
On Thursday, Pune district reported 85 fresh cases of Covid. Of these, Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) reported 65, Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) 15 and Pune rural five new cases.
Dr Pradeep Awate, Maharashtra surveillance officer, said that primary observation shows that areas in Mumbai which are reporting higher cases are elite localities with possibility of foreign travel.
“Since Mumbai is also an economic capital there is more mobility of population there and naturally rise in Covid count. However, if we look at the hospitalisation numbers, it is very low. Hospitalisation should be one of the key markers in understanding the impact of these variants,” said Dr Awate.
On Thursday, 517 patients were discharged across Maharashtra taking the total to 7,736,792 so far. Recovery rate in the state is 98.07 per cent. On the consecutive second day, Maharashtra reported 1,045 new cases and one Covid-19 death which means the case fatality rate is 1.87 per cent.