Omicron Subvariant BF.7, Driving China’s Covid Surge, Detected In Odisha

Bhubaneswar: At least three cases of Omicron subvariant BF.7, apparently the strain driving China’s current surge of Covid cases, have been detected so far in India, including one in Odisha, reports said on Wednesday.

The first case of BF.7 in India was detected in October by Gujarat Biotechnology Research Centre. So far, two cases have been reported from Gujarat while one case has been reported from Odisha, they said.

Official sources said Omicron BF.7 Covid sub-variant was detected in Odisha in a single sample tested on September 30. The RT-PCR test was done on demand for a woman of Khurda district. RMRC did the genome sequencing for this sample.

At the time of testing, it was neither a VOC (Variant of Concern) or VOI (Variant of Interest). In the 3 months since, no other sample of BF.7 has been detected in the state.

The woman was asymptomatic at time of test and she got tested for her travel to the USA. She and her family are in the USA since October. None of them had any flu like symptoms since their departure from India, they said.

In the Covid review meeting chaired by Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Wednesday, experts said although there is no overall increase in Covid caseload as of now, there is a need for continued surveillance to keep a track of existing and emerging variants.

Chinese cities are currently hit by the highly transmissible Omicron strain, mostly BF.7 which is the main variant spreading in Beijing and is contributing to a wider surge of Covid infections in that country, sources said.

The BF.7’s high transmissibility in China might be attributed to a low level of immunity in the Chinese population from the previous infection and possibly vaccination too, they said.

BF.7 is a sub-lineage of the Omicron variant BA.5 and has the strongest infection ability since it is highly transmissible, has a shorter incubation period, and has a higher capacity to cause reinfection or infect even those vaccinated.

It has already been detected in several other countries, including the US, the UK and European nations such as Belgium, Germany, France and Denmark