Mumbai: After a week’s gap, new cases of BA.4 and BA.5 variants of coronavirus have been found in India.
As many as seven cases of the Omicron subvariants were reported from Maharashtra on Saturday – all in Pune.
According to the Maharashtra Health department’s report on whole genomic sequencing, four persons tested positive for BA.4 variant and three for BA.5.
The first case of BA.4 variant was detected in Hyderabad.
Health officials have said that BA.4, BA.5 are not of great concern as these are offshoots of Omicron, which spread widely across the world, including India, and had a less severe impact than the Delta variant of coronavirus.
However, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has designated BA.4 and BA.5 as variants of concern as they could fuel rapid surge in infections in weeks and months ahead.
BA.4 and BA.5 were first detected in South Africa in January and February, respectively.
