This new Covid variant detected in Bihar's Patna is 10 times 'more dangerous' than what was detected in third wave
New Delhi, April 28: A new Covid-19 variant, BA.12, was found in Bihar's Patna on Thursday. According to the state's health department, the new coronavirus variant of Omicron was found in Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS).
BA.12 is 10 times more dangerous than BA.2, which was detected during the third wave of coronavirus in the country.
Prof Dr Namrata Kumari, HOD of microbiology department, IGIMS, said, "Keeping in view the rising Covid-19 cases, we had started genome sequencing of samples of Omicron variant of coronavirus. There were 13 samples tested and one of them had BA.12 strains. The remaining 12 samples have BA.2 strains."
The BA.12 variant was first detected in the United States. Two to three cases were detected in Delhi and now one case has surfaced in Patna.
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Meanwhile, India on Thursday reported 3,303 fresh Covid-19 cases that took its tally to 4,30,68,799, while the active coronavirus cases increased to 16,980, according to the update issued by the Union Health Ministry.
The daily cases crossed the 3,000-mark after 46 days. The death toll due to Covid-19 climbed to 5,23,693 with 39 more fatalities, the update issued at 8 am stated.
The active coronavirus cases comprise 0.04 per cent of the total infections. The national Covid-19 recovery rate stood at 98.74 per cent, the ministry said. An increase of 701 cases has been recorded in the active Covid-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.
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-PTC News
