India’s First Case Of BA.4 Subvariant Detected In Hyderabad

New Delhi: Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics (INSACOG) confirmed on Friday that India’s first case of Omicron subvariant BA.4 has been detected in Hyderabad.

Similar to the BA.2 subvariant of coronavirus, the BA.4 case was found on May 9 and confirmed 11 days later, ANI reported.

Health experts and scientific community in India have been monitoring BA.4 subvariant of Omicron since it was first detected in South Africa’s Limpopo on January 10, 2022.

The BA.5 subvariant, on the other hand, was also initially detected in South Africa (KwaZulu-Natal) on February 25, 2022.

The BA.4 and BA.5 variants affected a large section of the population in South Africa. They have also been found in the UK, USA and Botswana.

According to National Institute of Communicable Diseases in South Africa, BA.4 and BA.5 differ in mutations outside of the spike of the gene, but are identical in terms of spike mutations.

Also Read: Omicron BA.4 & BA.5 Likely To Evade Vaccines, Natural Immunity: Study