The Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) on Tuesday said that the first case of the BA.5 variant of Omicron in Gujarat has been detected in a 29-year-old man who came here from South Africa in the first week of May to visit his parents. Was. He was tested for COVID-19 on 1 May after showing symptoms. According to VMC health officials, his sample has been sent for genome sequencing.
Although the man returned to South Africa on May 9 after testing negative for COVID-19, reports of genome sequencing of his sample on Tuesday indicated that he was in fact Omicron’s ba.5 variant.
Officials said that since the man was in quarantine after his arrival, his close contacts did not show symptoms of COVID-19 and did not test positive.
INSACOG The COVID-19 Genomic Sequencing Association of India had earlier confirmed the first case of Omicron’s BA.5 sub-variant in the country in an 80-year-old man from Telangana who had no history of international travel. The union had also officially confirmed two cases of BA.4 – one from Hyderabad and one from Tamil Nadu. The case from Hyderabad was traced to a South African traveler during sampling at the airport, while the case from Tamil Nadu was of a 19-year-old woman with no international travel history.
Omicron’s BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants triggered the fifth wave of COVID-19 cases in South Africa. It has since been found in several European countries and the United States.
Corona has started wreaking havoc again in the last few months in many countries including China, South Korea, France, Britain, Germany. Corona patients are increasing continuously in hospitals of many countries. Cases have also increased significantly in South Korea. Cases of Omicron sub-variant BA.2 are being found in these countries.