New Delhi: Sentinel sequencing of 324 Covid positive samples taken from the community between December 29, 2022 and January 7, 2023 has revealed the presence of all Omicron variants like BA.2 and its sub-lineages, including BA.2.75, XBB (37), BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 (5) among others, the health ministry said on Monday (January 9). No mortality or rise in transmission were reported in the areas where these variants were detected, the ministry said in a statement. Besides, XBB (11), BQ.1.1 (12) and BF7.4.1 (1) were the main variants detected in positive samples of 50 international passengers which have been genome sequenced so far.
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Between December 29 and January 7, the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) sentinel sites referred 324 COVID-19 positive samples for sequencing to 22 INSACOG labs, it said.
The statement said,
Sentinel sequencing of these positive samples lifted from the community revealed presence of all the Omicron variants like BA.2 and its sub-lineages, including BA.2.75, XBB (37), BQ.1 & BQ.1.1 (5).
The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has initiated random testing of international travellers arriving at various airports since December 24, 2022.
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Since then, 13,57,243 International passengers arrived in India from 7,786 flights at various airports out of which 29,113 randomly selected passengers were tested by RT-PCR.
A total of 183 samples were found positive which were subsequently sent for whole genome sequencing to 13 INSACOG labs.
Sequencing of 50 samples revealed omicron and omicron sub-lineages, including recombinant variants. XBB (11), BQ.1.1 (12) and BF7.4.1 (1) were the main variants detected in these samples of international passengers, the statement said.
The Union health ministry is keeping a close watch on the COVID-19 situation in various states through the IDSP network particularly on the transmission and hospitalisation trends, it said.
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(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via the Banega Swachh India initiative, which is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. The campaign aims to highlight the inter-dependency of humans and the environment, and of humans on one another with the focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It stresses on the need to take care of, and consider, everyone’s health in India – especially vulnerable communities – the LGBTQ population, indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In wake of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same along with focussing on the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children, fight malnutrition, mental wellbeing, self care, science and health, adolescent health & gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign has realised the need to also take care of the health of the eco-system. Our environment is fragile due to human activity, which is not only over-exploiting available resources, but also generating immense pollution as a result of using and extracting those resources. The imbalance has also led to immense biodiversity loss that has caused one of the biggest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity.” The campaign will continue to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF) status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diarrhoea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.
