Covid: Odisha govt issues order as variant behind China spike detected in state

With Odisha having detected a case of the Covid virus subvariant which is apparently causing a surge in China, the state government issued instructions to district administrations.

Odisha health secretary asked local authorities to strengthen surveillance and ensure whole genome sequencing of samples found to be Covid positive.

"In view of the sudden spurt of cases being witnessed in certain counties, it is essential to gear up the disease surveillance and WSG of positive case samples to track the variant through Indian SARS CoV-2 Genomic Consortium (INSACOG) network," Shalini Pandit said.

The strategy of testing, tracking, treating, contact tracing, vaccination and COVID-19 appropriate behaviour needs to be flowed scrupulously to enable "timely detection of newer variant", she added.

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A case of infection by Omicron subvariant BF.7 was detected in Odisha in September 2022, and the patient had been asymptomatic, as per officials.

The ICMR's Regional Medical Research Centre (RMRC), Bhubaneswar conducted the genome sequencing of the sample, she said, adding that during the testing, it was found that the "sample was neither a variant of concern (VOC) nor a variant of interest".

(With PTI inputs)