Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Wednesday said that COVID-19 vaccines being used in India are effective against the Omicron sub-variant, BF.7. The virus variant has been found in several of the 200 COVID-positive samples of international air passengers that have so far been genome-sequenced.
More than 15 lakh international air passengers have been screened so far and 200 of them have tested positive for
COVID-19, Mandaviya said on the sidelines of a book launch.
"The genome-sequencing of the 200 samples showed that the BF.7 variant was present in several passengers. Our vaccines are effective against this sub-variant,” he said.
The health ministry had, on January 9, said the sentinel-sequencing of 324 COVID-positive samples lifted from the community between December 29 and January 7 had revealed the presence of all the Omicron variants, such as BA.2 and its sub-lineages including BA.2.75, XBB(37), BQ.1 and BQ.1.1(5), among others.
No mortality or rise in transmission was reported in the areas where these variants were detected, the ministry had said in a statement.
The
minister released a book titled "Braving A Viral Storm," which has been authored by Aashish Chandorkar and Suraj Sudhir, at the Constitution Club here on Wednesday.
(Edited by : Ayushi Agarwal)
First Published: Jan 12, 2023 12:58 PM IST
