Four cases of Covid subvariant BF.7 detected in West Bengal, all US returnees

Sagar Island: Amid growing concerns over rising new infections of coronavirus, four cases of Omicron subvariant BF.7 were detected in West Bengal, the state health officials said on Wednesday. Genome sequencing of the four people, who have recently returned from the US, confirmed that they were infected with the new variant of the coronavirus, a senior health official was quoted as saying by PTI.

The condition of the four patients is stable, he said. All four cases are currently Covid-negative as per their latest test reports. Of the four people, three are from Nadia district, while one person hails from Bihar but currently resides in Kolkata, the official added.

Last week, two persons, including a foreign national, tested positive for COVID-19 at Kolkata airport, and their genome sequencing later confirmed they were infected with the BF.7 subvariant of Omicron.

Meanwhile, the national capital also logged six fresh coronavirus cases with a positivity rate of 0.13 per cent on Wednesday, according to data shared by the city health department here. With the new infections, the national capital's COVID-19 tally has risen to 20,07,250. The death toll remained unchanged at 26,521, the data showed.

The fresh cases came out of 4,562 tests conducted the previous day, the health department bulletin stated. On Tuesday, Delhi reported seven COVID-19 cases with a positivity rate of 0.21 per cent, while it had logged four cases with a positivity rate of 0.32 per cent on Monday.

Delhi reported 11 COVID-19 cases on Sunday with a positivity rate of 0.31 per cent, while 14 cases were reported on Saturday with a positivity rate of 0.34 per cent. Last week, mock drills were conducted at various hospitals in Delhi to assess their preparedness, including the availability of beds and manpower, to deal with any increase in the number of Covid cases.

Amid all this, the World Health Organisation said on Wednesday that the agency is ‘concerned about the risk to life in China’ amid the coronavirus' explosive spread across the country and the lack of outbreak data from the Chinese government.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the agency recently met with Chinese officials to underline the importance of sharing more details about COVID-19 issues including hospitalisation rates and genetic sequences, even as the pandemic continues to recede globally since it began in late 2019.