“The Indian Council of Medical Research is investigating whether BF.7 behaves differently in a population that has been minimally exposed to the coronavirus as compared to Indians who have hybrid immunity (multiple doses of the vaccine as well as exposure to several variants of the virus),” one of the officials told The Hindu.
Details about India and China’s Omicron subvariant BF.7 are different
XBB, a recombinant variant that was a combination of two lineages (BJ.1 and BA.2.75) but was “highly infectious,” was the real concern for India, according to an expert who spoke to The Hindu. XBB had the potential to evade antibodies from existing vaccines and was responsible for an outbreak in many countries. The concern is that China’s sizable population is little exposed to the virus and that if exposed to something like XBB, it could spread even more recent strains that may have a variety of negative health effects. Although it’s almost probable that an Omicron-linked mutation is to blame for the present increase in China, the theory that BF.7 is to blame is only a supposition based on very small data, according to Vinod Scaria of the CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology.
Since March 2020, India has formally documented 4.4 crores COVID-19 cases, but numerous independent investigations place the actual number significantly higher. Currently, according to information from the Health Ministry, there are about 3,500 current infections.
