New Delhi, Jul 10, 2022, IANS
New Delhi, Jul 10: Omicron sub-variant BA.2's offspring BA.2.38 has not led to any increase in hospitalisation or disease severity, and a few deaths reported recently are due to comorbidities, Insacog said in its June 20 bulletin released on Sunday.
In the bulletin, the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (Insacog) said many BA.2 cases have been reclassified to BA.2.38. BA.2.38 seems to be the prevalent sub-lineage in the latest sequencing batches, it said.
"However, so far this has not led to any increase in hospitalisation or any report of increase in disease severity. A few deaths that have been reported recently, are due to comorbidities. COVID-appropriate behavior is likely to reduce the spread of the infection and hence continues to be recommended," it said.
In its previous bulletin dated June 13, which was also released on Sunday, the Insacog said BA.2 continues to be the dominant lineage in India.
"However, hospitalisation due to the severity of the disease has not been observed that much. INSACOG is closely monitoring the current situation," it said.
In another bulletin of May 30, the Insacog informed that till then, five cases of BA.4 and three cases of BA.5 had been reported in India.
The Insacog reports genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 across the country through sequencing of samples from sentinel sites and international passengers arriving in India.
Meanwhile, with 18,257 new coronavirus infections being reported in a day, India's total tally of COVID-19 cases rose to 4,36,22,651, while the active cases increased to 1,28,690.
According to the Union Health Ministry data updated at 8 am on Sunday, the death toll climbed to 5,25,428 with 42 new fatalities.
The 42 new fatalities include 24 from Kerala, five from Maharashtra, three each from Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, two from Delhi and one each from Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand and Sikkim.
The active cases comprise 0.30 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.50 per cent, the ministry said.
An increase of 3,662 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.
The daily positivity rate was recorded at 4.22 per cent while the weekly positivity rate was recorded at 4.08 per cent, according to the ministry.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,29,68,533, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.20 per cent.
According to the ministry, 198.76 crore doses of Covid vaccine have been administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive.
India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.
The country crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23 last year. It crossed the four-crore mark on January 25 this year.