B.A. 4, B.A. 5 variant found in Maharashtra: Rajesh Tope issues advisory

B.A. 4, B.A. 5 variant: An official of the Maharashtra health department on Saturday said four patients of B.A. 4 variant and three cases of B.A. 5 variant of the Omicron sub-lineage of coronavirus have for the first time been found in the state. B.A. 4 B.A. 5 variant found in Maharashtra: Rajesh Tope issues advisory.

Maharashtra Public Health Minister Rajesh Tope advised residents in places where everyday coronavirus infections are increasing to exercise greater vigilance and use masks. He also told reporters that, despite the fact that instances have been rising, there have been few documented deaths due to the illness.

Health professionals have been given orders to take the necessary procedures to stop COVID-19 from spreading, according to the minister. “The (people living in) districts which are reporting an increase in the daily COVID-19 cases should start taking extra care including wearing masks. The numbers of daily cases are on the rise, but it is still under control,” Rajesh Tope said.

The official said that seven patients from Maharashtra’s Pune city were detected with the infection of the sub-lineage of Omicron. He added that four patients have the infection of B.A. 4 variant while others have contracted the B.A. 5 variant.

The official said four of them are men and three women. “Four patients are above 50 years of age while two are in 20-40 age group while one patient is a nine-year-old child,” he added. The official said all the six adults have completed both dosages of the vaccine while one has taken the booster shot too.

“The child is unvaccinated. All of them had mild symptoms of Covid-19 and were treated successfully in home isolation,” he added. The official further said that their samples were taken between May 4 and 18. “Two of them had travelled to South Africa and Belgium, while three had travelled to Kerala and Karnataka. The other two patients had no recent travel history,” he added.

The whole genome sequencing was conducted by the Institute of Science Education and Research. The finding has been confirmed by the Indian Biological Data Centre in Faridabad. These sub-lineages of Omicron were found earlier in April in some parts of the world, including South Africa. No cases had been detected in Maharashtra until now.

The BA.4, a sub-variant of Omicron, has been declared a variant of concern along with BA.5 by the European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. The BA.4 and BA.5 are spreading more rapidly in several European nations than the previous Omicron variants, specifically BA.1 and BA.2.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra reported 529 new Covid-19 cases, 325 recoveries and zero deaths in the last 24 hours. The case fatality rate in the state is 1.87%. Out of the 8,08,64,421 laboratory samples, 78,85,394 have been tested positive (09.75%) for Covid-19 until today.