Covid-19: BA.5 variant found in another patient in Pune

On Tuesday, officials in Pune reported that a lady tested positive with the B.A.5 Covid-19 strain. The woman recovered in home isolation, according to the latest research on Whole genomic sequencing from BJ Medical College.

“A 31-year-old woman from Pune found positive for B.A.5 variant. The woman was asymptomatic and recovered in home isolation,” read an official statement. BA.4 and BA.5 are subvariants of the Omicron variant circulating globally. These were reported first from South Africa earlier this year and are now reported from several other countries. These variants have not been associated with disease severity or increased hospitalization.

The first case of BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 have been found in Tamil Nadu and Telangana respectively, confirmed the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG). A total of 1881 new COVID-19 cases were reported in the state of Maharashtra on June 7 with zero deaths. The western state had 8,432 active cases with a recovery rate of 98.02 per cent.

(With inputs from ANI)