Mumbai sees 1st BA.4, BA.5 cases, among highest growth districts – Times of India

MUMBAI: Four cases of the two newest subvariants of Omicron-BA.4 and BA.5- were confirmed in the city for the first time on Monday. Civic officials said the three patients of BA.4 and one of BA.5 have recovered after being in home isolation. Maharashtra now has 13 confirmed cases of these variants, which are gradually rising in prevalence worldwide but have not been associated with severe disease and hospitalisations yet.
The revelation of the new subvariants came on a day Mumbai city and Mumbai suburban featured among the dozen districts in the country with the highest growth in new Covid-19 cases and weekly positivity rate. Data from the Centre showed Mumbai suburban recorded a weekly positivity rate (WPR) of 15.6% in the week ended June 11 and the island city 10. 3%. Both registered a near 1.7X and 1.1X growth in WPR. Thane and Pune, with a 3.2X and 2.2X growth rate in new cases, were the other two concerning districts from Maharashtra.

The state came right after Kerala, which has six districts with soaring indicators, including Ernakulam (17.8%), Kottayam (17.4%) and Kozhikode (15.9%)-the highest WPRs in the country. Bengaluru urban from Karnataka and Gurugram from Haryana are among the 12 districts showing rising trends. In terms of active cases, though, Maharashtra at 34% is currently the highest contributor, followed by Kerala with 32%. The Centre has directed Maharashtra to strengthen genomic sequencing, and Mumbai and Pune to increase sewage sampling.
The new subvariants alone are not causing a surge anywhere in the country still, according to Dr Sujeet Singh, director, National Centre for Disease Control. He said a combination of factors, including human susceptibility, the virus, environmental factors and Covid-appropriate behaviour are playing a role.
“The Indian population is at various stages of immunity depending on when they have taken the vaccine or got the latest infection, and therefore remain susceptible to reinfection,” he said, adding cases never go down to zero in case of respiratory infections. Omicron remains the most dominant in India, he said.
Omicron’s dominance was underlined by Mumbai’s latest 12th genome sequencing study at Kasturba Hospital, which found it in 99.5% of the 279 samples and only one was Delta. The civic body said all four new variant cases were detected between May 14 and 24. Out of the three patients of BA.4, none was vaccinated. Two were 11-year-old girls who were not eligible for vaccination and the third didn’t take a vaccine due to allergy. The patient who was infected with BA.5 has taken both jabs.
Dr Mangala Gomare, BMC’s executive health officer, said all recovered without hospitalisation. She, though, said the new variants could be circulating in the community as none of the affected had a travel history even within the state. “Our observation is most people have mild disease,” she said, adding of nearly 478 admitted, 30 are on oxygen and six ventilator. There was a slight drop in hospitalisation (72), although there has been a rise in bed demand, for instance, at St George’s Hospital.