‘BF.7 variant found in several Covid samples of international flyers’: Mandaviya
"The genome-sequencing of the 200 samples showed that the BF.7 variant was present in several passengers. Our vaccines are effective against this sub-variant," Mansukh Mandaviya said.
Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Wednesday said Omicron sub-variant, BF.7, which is driving the current wave of Covid-19 infections in China, has been found in several of the 200 positive samples of international air passengers after genome-sequencing, news agency ANI reported.
Mandaviya added that more than 15 lakh international air passengers have so far been screened and 200 of them have tested positive for Covid-19. "The genome-sequencing of the 200 samples showed that the BF.7 variant was present in several passengers. Our vaccines are effective against this sub-variant," Mandaviya was quoted as saying by ANI.
News agency PTI reported that on January 9, the health ministry had said the sentinel-sequencing of 324 Covid-positive samples lifted from the community between December 29 and January 7 had revealed the presence of all the Omicron variants, such as BA.2 and its sub-lineages including BA.2.75, XBB(37), BQ.1 and BQ.1.1(5), among others.
No mortality or rise in transmission was reported in the areas where these variants were detected.
Meanwhile, India saw a single-day rise of 171 fresh Covid-19 cases, while the active cases have increased to 2,342, according to the health ministry data. The country's infection tally has reached 4,46,80,386, while the death toll stands at 5,30,722. The daily positivity rate was recorded at 0.09 and the weekly positivity rate was pegged at 0.11.
