HQ Team
October 31, 2022: About 2.20 billion people across the board have been administered Covid-19 vaccines in India, according to the government.
More than 40 million teens aged 12-14 years have taken the first dose of the vaccine since the drive started on March 16, 2022.
The Covid-19 precaution dose administration for 8-59 years also started on April 10, 2022.
India’s active caseload stood at 18,317, and 1,604 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours.
According to a statement on the government’s website, the recovery rate currently was at 98.77%.
Mutations
In the current phase of the pandemic, the SARS-CoV-2 virus is continually accumulating mutations, some of which might contribute to increased transmissibility and immune evasion resulting in transmission advantage over other variants, the government said in a separate statement.
XBB, a BJ.1/BM.1.1.1 recombinant lineage, is presently appearing in multiple countries, according to a bulletin from the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG).
The recombinant lineage was first detected in Singapore and the US and identified in multiple Indian states. “A sub-lineage of XBB with an additional mutation is also detected (XBB.1).”
Isolates
XBB, a hybrid of Omicron BA.2.75 and BJ.1 sub-variants, currently accounts for 48% of all the isolates. An isolate is a name for a virus that one isolates from an infected host and propagated in culture.
Isolates have different names so that their origins are known.
There was a modest increase in the spread of XBB in Singapore. No reports indicated an increase in the severity of the disease or an increase in hospitalization associated with these variants.
Among the Indian patients, the disease is mild, like other Omicron sub-lineages, with no increase in severity.
INSACOG was set up under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on December 30 2020, to study and monitor genome sequencing and virus variation of circulating strains of Covid-19 in India.
