INSACOG confirms first cases of BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron’s sub-variants
1 min read 22 May 2022, 09:55 PM ISTA 19 years old female in Tamil Nadu has been found infected with the BA.4 variant of SARS-CoV-2 and an 80 years old male in Telangana has tested positive for the BA.5
PremiumNEW DELHI : Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) has confirmed the first cases of BA.4 and BA.5–each of them are known as sub-variants of Omicron.
“A 19 years old female in Tamil Nadu has been found infected with the BA.4 variant of SARS-CoV-2. The patient has shown only mild clinical symptoms and has been fully vaccinated. The patient had no travel history. Before this, a South African traveler was reported positive for the BA.4 variant on arrival at Hyderabad airport, INSACOG said in a bulletin.
“An 80 years old male in Telangana has tested positive for the BA.5 variant SARS-CoV-2. The patient has shown only mild clinical symptoms and has been fully vaccinated. The patient had no travel history," it said adding that the contact tracing of the BA.4. and BA.5 patients are being undertaken as a precautionary measure.
Mint on 20 May already reported that authorities have resumed contact tracing after a gap of almost three months since the first case of BA.4 was detected in India.
BA.4 and BA.5 are subvariants of the Omicron variant circulating globally. These were reported first from South Africa earlier this year and are now reported from several other countries. These variants have not been associated with disease severity or increased hospitalization.
