Recombinant COVID variant detected in three states; Govt says no association with case rise in India

A few sub-variants of the Omicron COVID-19 variant, as well as recombinant variants responsible for case surges in other countries, have been detected in three states in India. However, they aren’t associated with the case rise in India, official sources said.

“The new Omicron sub-variants have been detected in Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Karnataka. At least five or six new sub-variants have been detected after sequencing of positive samples,” an official, who is part of the SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG), told Moneycontrol.

INSACOG is a national multi-agency consortium of Genome Sequencing Laboratories (RGSLs), which monitors the genomic variations of COVID19.

Asked for details about the sub-variants detected in these states, the official said Omicron sub-variant BA232, recombinant variant XBB, and a few combinations of BA2.75 and BA.2.1 of the Omicron variant have been detected after sequencing the positive samples of COVID19 in India.

Also read: MC Explains | It’s being called the most contagious SARS-CoV-2 virus. What you need to know about Omicron XBB

Union minister for health and family welfare Mansukh Mandaviya recently chaired a meeting with public health experts and officials to review the COVID19 pandemic situation in the country, the status of vaccination drive and the global scenario with new variants of COVID19.

Mandaviya directed the officials to continue to focus on surveillance across the country, particularly through sentinel sites, including monitoring of influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) cases and Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS), to scan for any possible mutations in the wake of identification of Omicron variants in other countries.

“With the emergence of new Omicron variants, many countries are witnessing a steep rise in cases. Union Health Minister stressed on monitoring the points of entries. He also highlighted the need for community awareness for continued implementation of the COVID Appropriate Behaviour (CAB), especially in view of the upcoming festival season,” the Health Ministry said in a release.

Also read: Rising COVID-19 cases and new Omicron subvariants put government on alert 

No reason to panic

An NTAGI official, who was part of the meeting chaired by Health Minister Mandaviya, said some sub-variants and a new recombinant variant BXX had been detected in three states but the variants haven’t been associated with an increase in COVID cases.

“We need to be alert. We are currently monitoring three aspects: hospitalisation, ICU admission and the mortality rise in our population. The different variants currently detected in three states haven’t been associated with severe disease,” the top official said, requesting anonymity.

Asked if the Health Ministry was planning to adopt a different strategy against the new recombinant BXX variant, which has been attributed for the case rise in China, the official said the government was closely monitoring the situation.

“There is no reason for panic as such. The variants detected in India so far haven’t been associated with severe disease, but we need to be alert. The situation in China can't be compared with India as they follow a different approach in tackling COVID. The approach in epidemiology adopted by China is different,” he added.

WHO concerned about variants

Commenting on XBB and other Omicron variants, Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organizations’s COVID19 Technical lead, said that over 300 sublineages of Omicron are circulating globally right now and most are BA.5 sublineages, but none is dominant.

“At the present time, there are more than 300 sub-lineages of Omicron that the WHO and partners are tracking, and not one of the sub-variants is dominant. Most of the sequences shared with platforms like GSAID are the BA.5 sub-variant and its sublineages. XBB is a recombinant of BA.2 sublineages,” she added.

Update on #Omicron, including what we know about XBB & BQ.1.1 ⬇️

Bottom line: >300 sublineages of Omicron are circulating globally right now and most (~76%) are BA.5 sublineages.

We @WHO with our TAG-VE need to assess all variants & currently this is very difficult.

“We do know that this recombinant has a significant growth advantage. One study, based on a pseudo virus for analysing immune evasion, shows that the recombinant variant can evade immunity significantly and this is a concern for us,” she added.