NAGPUR: Two patients — a woman aged 54 and a 27-year-old man from Dharampeth zone — have tested positive for Omicron sub-variant BA.5 by SARSCoV2 whole genome sequencing at NEERI lab. The BA.5 is one of the Omicron variants which is causing a surge in different countries and is being closely watched by Indian SarsCov2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG). Both the patients are vaccinated and their health is believed to be stable.
These two are the first cases of BA.5 in Vidarbha while the variant has already been reported in Maharashtra recently. The two patients had tested positive in RT-PCR on June 5 and 9 respectively, following their return from Mumbai and Kerala.
Municipal commissioner Radhakrishnan B told TOI that the civic body is considering moving positive patients suspected of new variants to institutional quarantine. “We need to be alert about BA.4 and BA.5 variants. The detection indicates there maybe many patients of these variants in the city now. We shall pursue guidelines for BA.4 and BA.5 with the state government,” the civic chief said.
Radhakrishnan also said that it can’t be ruled out that such new variants are possibly behind the recent spike in the new cases. “If needed we may quarantine high risk Covid patients. But we still don’t have specific guidelines from the government. One of the BA.5 patients is completing seven-day home isolation on Thursday,” he said.
Radhakrishnan admitted that it is a challenge to move people in institutional quarantine when whole genome sequencing (WGS) results are awaited. “Now, Neeri lab has its hands full. Till we come to know someone has BA.5 or some other variant, they are declared recovered as per existing norms. I have requested Neeri to expedite Nagpur samples so that we can take action early on case-to-case basis,” he said.
He added there is no clarity regarding the virulence of XQ lineage.
The district has recorded over 450 cases so far this month while the monthly figure had come down below 50-mark last month.
NMC officials couldn’t establish direct contact with both the BA.5 patients. The 29-year-old is declared recovered as he tested positive on June 4. He had travelled to Kerala. He didn’t answer calls from medical staff. NMC officials plan to test them again and decide as per the result. “We may ask them to shift to IGR if they have symptoms,” they said.
Around 15 close contacts of the man and 20 of the woman were traced and tested. Of these, 30 have been found negative.
Apart from this, the Neeri lab, led by scientist Krishna Khairnar, has also found one XQ recombinant lineage each in a Nagpur and a Jammu sample. The lab had received 163 samples belonging to Vidarbha districts as well as Jammu and Kashmir from June 4 to 14. Of these, 79 samples tested positive for SarsCov2 WGS. So far, 1,596 samples have been processed by Neeri lab with a turnaround time of 1.5 days.
Neeri lab at Nagpur was the first in the country to report BA.4 in India by WGS, BA.4 was reported in a 19-year-old girl from Tamil Nadu. As of Wednesday, no BA.4 have been reported in Vidarbha region. Neeri lab is now providing the SARSCOV2 WGS services to three states of India, the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and J&K.
