Omicron, sub-lineages circulating predominantly in India: Sources

New Delhi: The Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG), in a weekly meeting, reviewed the data of genomic surveillance of variants and found that at present, Omicron and its sub-lineages are the predominant mutataions that are circulating in India. "Presently, only Omicron and its sub-lineages are the predominant circulating variants in India," sources told ANI today. "The COVID-19 cases are rising, but hospitalization and deaths are still less," said sources.

"We review the data every week, but there is no need to panic at all because hospitalization hasn`t increased and no new variant has been found so far," added sources. INSACOG will release its bulletin regarding the presence of Omicron sub-lineages soon.

According to the bulletin issued on July 11 by INSACOG, Omicron and its sub lineages continue to be the dominant variant in India. 

"BA.2.75 sub-variant has acquired more mutations in spike protein and other genes of the SARS-CoV-2," and it also mentioned that the variant is being closely monitored.

INSACOG is jointly initiated by the Union Health Ministry of Health and the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

"COVID-19 is a cyclical viral disease like many others. Immunity from infection is short-lived for coronaviruses, unlike measles or chicken pox viruses. Newer Omicron sub-lineages are especially capable of leaping past the immunity generated by older versions of the same variant," said Dr Rajeev Jayadevan, co-Chairman of National Indian Medical Association`s COVID-19 task force.

"The longer we are past the recent infection or the last vaccine dose, the more the number of susceptible people in a region. Many people are not following basic precautions now, and therefore making the virus spread by aerosol is easier. The public must understand that the virus has not gone away," he said further. 

The national capital on Friday recorded 2,419 new COVID-19 cases, which is the highest in six months.

India recorded as many as 19,406 fresh COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, informed the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Saturday.

The tally of COVID-19 cases is now at 4,41,26,994 including 1,34,793 active cases. Active cases account for 0.31 per cent of the total cases. The recovery rate is currently at 98.50 per cent. 

As many as 19,928 recoveries from the infection were logged in the last 24 hours thereby increasing the total recoveries to 4,34,65,552. The single-day rise of 49 fatalities has pushed India`s COVID-19 death toll to 5,26,649, the government data added. The daily positivity rate, as per the government data, is at 4.96 per cent and the weekly positivity rate is at 4.63 per cent. The data further informed that 87.75 crore of total tests have been conducted so far of which 3,91,187 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours. On the COVID-19 vaccination front, over 205.92 crore total vaccine doses have been administered so far under the nationwide vaccination drive.