Omicron’s sub-variant BA.2 more contagious, gradually increasing in India

The prevalence of Omicron sub-lineage BA.2 is more contagious and gradually increasing in India, the Union Health Ministry has warned while briefing about the Covid-19 situation in the country.

Sujeet Kumar Singh, Director, National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), on Thursday said, “Omicron sub-variant BA.2 is more prevalent in comparison to the BA.1 variant in India now.’’ He, however, added that BA.3 sub-variant has not been detected in India yet.

“Earlier, the BA.1 variant was dominant among the samples collected from the travellers. Now in community settings, we have found that the BA.2 sub-variant is gradually increasing,” Singh said.

Talking about increasing cases of Omicron, Singh said that out of the total genome sequencing reports received so far, increasing cases of Omicron have been found in the month of January.

Of the total reports received, 1,292 Omicron cases were found in December last year, whereas the number of Delta cases was over 17,000, he said. In January so far, 9,672 Omicron cases have been found against 4,779 Delta cases, which includes 3,201 AYC variants and 1,578 Delta variants, Singh said.

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