BA.12 variant detected in India! Is it dangerous? Here's all you need to know about new Omicron strain

A new variant of the Omicron- BA. 12 has been detected in Patna in Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS), as per IANS report.

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A new variant of the Omicron- BA. 12 has been detected in Patna in Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) triggering the threat of a fourth wave of the Covid-19 amid a rising trend of infections in India.

Professor Dr Namrata Kumari, the HOD of the microbiology department of IGIMS, said: "Keeping in view the rising Covid cases, we had started genome sequencing of samples of Omicron variant of Corona. There were 13 samples tested and one of them had BA.12 strains. The remaining 12 samples have BA.2 strains."

As the new BA.12 variant raises concern about another wave of Omicron, which was responsible for the third wave of Covid-19 in India, here’s all we know so far about the new variant.

What is BA.12 variant?

The BA.12 variant is a lineage of the highly transmissible Omicron variant of coronavirus, which triggered the third wave of Covid-19 in India.

The variant was first detected in the US.

So far, there were two to three cases detected in Delhi and now one case in Patna.

Is BA.12 variant dangerous?

According to the experts, the new variant BA.12 is ten times more dangerous than the original lineage of Omicron (BA.2) which was detected during the third wave of the Covid-19 in the country.

Should we worry about the BA.12 variant of coronavirus?

"We have asked the authority for contact tracing of all the positive samples of Omicron. The BA.12 variant is 10 times more dangerous than BA.2. Though, there is no need to worry. Precaution is required here to protect from it," Dr Namrata Kumari, the HOD of the microbiology department of IGIMS told IANS.

(With IANS inputs)