‘No severe illness yet from prevalent variant’

A medic collects a nasal swab sample of a man for COVID-19 test, in Jammu on Sunday. Pic/ANI

Omicron sub-variant BA.2's offspring BA.2.38 has not led to any increase in hospitalisation or disease severity, and a few deaths reported recently are due to comorbidities, INSACOG said in its June 20 bulletin released on Sunday.

In the bulletin, the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) said many BA.2 cases have been reclassified to BA.2.38, which seems to be the prevalent sub-lineage in the latest sequencing batches, it said.

"However, so far this has not led to any increase in hospitalisation or any report of increase in disease severity. A few deaths that have been reported recently, are due to comorbidities. COVID-appropriate behaviour is likely to reduce the spread of the infection and hence continues to be recommended," it said.

In its previous bulletin dated June 13, which was also released on Sunday, the Insacog said BA.2 continues to be the dominant lineage in India.

"However, hospitalisation due to the severity of the disease has not been observed that much. INSACOG is closely monitoring the current situation," it said.

Meanwhile, Union health ministry on Sunday morning added 18,257 new infections and 42 fatalities to its data. The active caseload rose by 3,662.

4,36,22,651 Total no. of Coronavirus cases in india so far
5,25,428 Total no. of deaths due to the virus in India so far
1,28,690 Total no. of active cases in India

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