Highly infectious new Omicron sub variant BF.7 detected in India
Darpan News Desk IANS, 17 Oct, 2022 10:29 AM
New Delhi, Oct 17 (IANS) With a declining trajectory of fresh Covid cases, a new Omicron sub variant, however, is posing a new threat in the country.
According to some reports, the first case of BF.7 has been detected by the Gujarat Biotechnology Research centre. This new Omicron variant is also considered to be highly infectious and has a greater transmissibility.
Omicron sub-variants -- BA.5.1.7 and BF.7 -- after emerging from a region of Mongolia in China are now making their way to other parts and posing fresh threats.
Reportedly, Omicron variants BF.7 and BA.5.1.7 are behind the recent surge in the Covid-19 cases in China. However, experts have advised precaution and Covid appropriate behaviour ahead of the upcoming festive season.
Meanwhile, the active caseload of the country presently stands at 26,834 cases, accounting for 0.06 per cent of the country's total positive cases.
India's daily positivity rate was reported to be 1.86 per cent, while the weekly positivity rate currently stands at 1.02 per cent on Monday.
A total of 2,060 fresh Covid cases was detected in the last 24 hours against 2,401 reported on the previous day, the Union Health Ministry said on Monday morning.
Delhi's iconic Red Fort will be shut for the public from July 21 till Independence Day celebrations on August 15 are over, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) said on Tuesday.
Taking part in a discussion in the Upper House, Puri said, "I have got an impression that the one realisation which has escaped many is that the enemy here is the virus, not the government, or the Chief Ministers, or the system. It is the virus which is the real enemy."
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Tuesday said it is not correct to say that the third Covid wave will affect children as in the two waves till now children were relatively less infected.
Most experts believe India’s official toll of 414,000 dead was a vast undercount, but the government has dismissed those concerns. A report released Tuesday estimates excess deaths to be 3 million to 4.7 million between January 2020 and this June.
Rejecting all opposition to his elevation, Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi appointed Navjot Singh Sidhu as the party's new Punjab unit President along with four Working Presidents.
Calling the reports of alleged snooping on prominent citizens using Israeli Pegasus spyware as "baseless", the ruling BJP on Monday said there is not a single shred of evidence so far that links either the central government or the party to this controversy.
