Amid the rising cases of Covid-19 in the country, four patients of B.A. 4 Omicron variant and three cases of B.A. 5 variants of the Omicron sub-lineage of coronavirus have been found in Maharashtra for the first time, PTI reported quoting an official of the state health department said on Saturday. As per the health officials, all the patients only had mild symptoms and were treated at home in isolation. All the seven patients, four men and three women are from Pune and are in home isolation. BA.4 and BA.5 sub-lineages of the highly transmissible Omicron variant of coronavirus were found in April in some parts of the world including South Africa, but until now no cases had been detected in the state.
Four patients are above 50 years of age while two are in the 20-40 age group while one patient is a nine-year-old child, he added. All six adults have received both the dosages of the vaccine while one has taken the booster shot too.
The child, however, is unvaccinated. All of them had mild symptoms of Covid-19 and were treated successfully in home isolation, the official said.
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 said.
The whole-genome sequencing was conducted by the Institute of Science Education and Research, and its finding has been confirmed by the Indian Biological Data Centre in Faridabad.
(With PTI inputs)
