Ashish Ranjan
New XBB.1.16 Covid sub-variant: A new variant of Covid-19 is on the rise. Four of the five states that have detected XBB.1.16 over the past three weeks have reported an increase in the number of cases.Officials from the Ministry of Health have stated that there is no evidence of a rise in disease severity, hospitalization, or mortality.
XBB.1.16 is considered an interesting covid sub-variant due to its increased transmissibility, which enables it to displace other dominant variants.The variant was found in 204 patient samples in March, up from 138 in February and just two in January, according to data from India’s Covid-19 genome sequencing consortium, INSACOG.
Cases of the new variant have been reported from Pune, Mumbai, Thane, Sangli, Ahmednagar, Amravati, and Nandurbar. Of the total 344 XBB.1.16 sequences isolated to date, the maximum number (105) has been reported from Maharashtra, followed by Mumbai, Thane, Sangli, Ahmednagar, Amravati, and Nandurbar.
This was followed by 93 Telangana sequences, 57 Karnataka sequences, 54 Gujarat sequences, and 19 Delhi sequences. After XBB.1.16, XBB.1.5 and XBB.2.3 are the subvariants with the highest prevalence among patient samples, according to INSACOG data.
“As a pandemic infection typically approaches endemicity, the number of variants increases. Is Covid-19 now an epidemic? We are not stating that, but it is on its way,” said a senior Health Ministry official who requested anonymity.Eight states have reported an increase in Covid-19 cases: Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Delhi.
The number of Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra increased from 377 the week ending March 9 to 790 the week ending March 16 and to 1,650 the week ending March 23. During the same time period, the positivity rate — the proportion of samples that test positive — increased from 1.05 percent to 4.49 percent.
This positivity rate is significantly higher than the national average of 1% for the same week.In Gujarat, there were 115 cases during the week that ended on March 9, 346 during the week that ended on March 16, and 1,093 during the week that ended on March 23.During the same time frame, the positivity rate in the state increased from 0.32 percent to 2 percent.
The number of Covid-19 cases in Kerala increased from 445 the week ending March 9 to 601 the week ending March 16 and 979 the week ending March 23. The state’s positivity rate increased from 2.02 percent to 4.17 percent.
Also Read | Today, PM Modi will speak at the “One World TB Summit” in Varanasi
The number of reported cases in Karnataka rose from 539 the week ending March 9 to 603 the week ending March 6 and 692 the week ending March 23. The state’s rate of positivity rose from 2.33 percent to 3.08 percent.
