Covid 4th wave in Delhi: What is Omicron BA.2.12.1 found in most samples? Expert on severity, growth
Premium- The BA.2.12 variant appears to have a growth advantage of about 30% to 90% per week over BA.2 (Omicron)
The recent Covid surge in Delhi could be led by Omicron BA.2.12.1, which is detected in a majority of the samples sequenced. And an eminent US-based expert warned that the BA.2.12 strain, which is also dominant in the United States, appears to be fitter apart from having a massive transmission advantage than BA.2. Delhi logged 1,009 fresh Covid cases on Wednesday, a 60 per cent jump from a day ago. Experts have also suggested that currently, 8 COVID variant are circulating, including Omicron and its subvariants.
Regarding the new strain, the eminent physician Eric Tool said, BA.2 wave is soon morphing into the BA2.12.1 wave. And a study also showed the doubling speed of the strain is 2.5 times higher than BA.2
Meanwhile, regarding the sudden surge in Delhi, official sources told PTI, "New sub-variants BA.2.12 (52 per cent samples) and BA.2.10 (11 per cent samples) are showing high transmission and have been found in over 60 per cent of the total samples from Delhi sequenced recently."
"The BA.2.12 variant appears to have a growth advantage of about 30% to 90% per week over BA.2 (Omicron)," the source added.
8 variants of Omicron circulating, one is dominating
The health experts are of the opinion that new variants of the Omicron are emerging and they are being sequenced. They further pointed out that there are eight variants of Omicron and amongst them, one is dominating which can be held responsible for the surge in cases.
Speaking to ANI, Dr SK Sarin, Director, Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS) said that there is a possibility of new variants of Omicron in Delhi while adding that the samples at the ILBS lab have been sequenced.
"There is a possibility that new variants are emerging of the Omicron and they are being sequenced," said Dr Sarin.
"I think by today at our institute ILBS many samples have been sequenced and I think there are eight variants of which one is now dominating, we will come to know slowly," he told ANI.
Officials said that top five states in terms of new cases reported are: Delhi (1009), Haryana (3103), Uttar Pradesh (1684), Maharashtra (1625) and Mizoram 103.