NEW DELHI: Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG)-country’ coronavirus monitoring body reports to have found five cases of COVID-19’s XBB.1.5 variant. As per reports released on Tuesday, out of the five cases, three have been found in Gujarat and one each in Karnataka and Rajasthan.
COVID-19 variant Omicron and its sub-lineages continue to be the dominant variant in India with ‘XBB’ being the most prevalent sub-lineage circulating all over the country, INSACOG has said.
The XBB.1.5 variant of COVID-19 is held responsible for the striking uptick in coronavirus cases in the United States. The strain is a mutation of the Omicron XBB variant, which is a recombinant of the Omicron BA.2.10.1 and BA.2.75 subvariants.
The United States of America has been reporting a sudden surge in COVID-19 cases ever since China eased its COVID curbs. The current surge is attributed to the XBB and XBB.1.5 which make up 44 percent of cases. India in view of the recent surge in neighboring country China mandated a negative RT-PCR report that should be uploaded on the Air Suvidha portal before a passenger boards flights from China, Hongkong, Singapore, Korea, Thailand, and Japan.