Covid-19 fourth wave scare: Patna detects first case of new Omicron variant BA.2.12

A new Omicron COVID-19 variant has been detected by Bihar’s health department at Patna’s Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) on Thursday. The new variant BA.2. 12 is 10 times more dangerous than BA.2 which was detected during the third wave of Corona in the country. The BA.2.12 variant was first detected in the United States. There were five cases of BA.2.12 detected in Delhi and now one case has been detected in Patna.

Professor Dr Namrata Kumari, the HOD of 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.” 

“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,” she said. 

On April 23, the national capital reported the BA.2.12 variant of the COVID-19 for the first time, which is more transmissible than the Omicron variant (BA.2) of the virus. The BA.2.12 is a sub-lineage of the Omicron variant and was spotted during genome sequencing to find the current surge in COVID-19 cases in Delhi.