NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India detected a total of 11 subvariants of COVID-19 in international travellers who arrived in the country during Dec. 24 to Jan. 3, health ministry sources said on Thursday, adding they were a mix of new and existing variants.
The variants detected were all sublineages of Omicron variant of COVID, including the BA.5.2 subvariant and a sublineage of BF.7 subvariant that were driving China’s recent coronavirus outbreak.
Hundreds of COVID-19 variants are currently circulating globally, but a handful that are of concern and are being monitored.
Of the 19,227 passengers who were tested for COVID-19 during the period, 124 were found positive, the sources said.
The Indian government has made a COVID-19 negative test mandatory for arrivals from China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Thailand.
The new requirement is in addition to the random tests on 2% of all international passengers arriving in India.
(Reporting by Sarita Chaganti Singh in New Delhi, writing by Shilpa Jamkhandikar; editing by Sudipto Ganguly and Raissa Kasolowsky)
