It said the presence of BQ.1 sub-lineage has been seen in eastern, southern, western and northern parts of India.

Also, some occurrence of BF.7 sub-lineage has been seen in eastern and northern parts of India over the last week. No increase in disease severity or hospitalization has been observed during this period.

“Omicron and its sub-lineages continue to be the dominant variants in India. Among the samples collected till the end of December 2022, XBB, BA.2.75 and BA.2.10 continued to be the most commonly circulating Omicron sub-lineages. Presence of BQ.1 sub-lineage has been seen in Eastern, Southern, Western and Northern parts of India. Overall, XBB is the most prevalent sub-lineage of omicron variant. Some occurrence of BF.7 sub-lineage has also been seen in Eastern and Northern part of India over last week. No increase in disease severity or hospitalization has been observed during this period,” stated INSACOG.

India, in the last 24 hours, have recorded 66 new covid cases with constant reportage of low cases.

Globally, more than 3 million new cases and 10 000 deaths have been reported in the last week of December 2022. “This represents a reduction in weekly cases and deaths of 22% and 12%, respectively. During last week, BA.5 and its descendent lineages were still dominant globally, accounting for 63.7% of sequences submitted to GISAID even though their prevalence is decreasing. The prevalence of BA.2 and its descendent lineages is rising, mainly due to BA.2.75 together they account for 15.2% of sequences submitted,” stated INSACOG bulletin.

INSACOG is a consortium of 54 laboratories to monitor the genomic variations in covid-19 virus. Till now, around 305,766 covid-19 positive samples have been sequenced, collected from sentinel sites and international passengers arriving in India to track the emergence of any new virus, its transmission rate and severity.