XBB – a combination of Omicron sub variants – is replacing the BA.2.75 variant of Covid infection in the state, Maharashtra health department officials have said. The severity of the disease as well as the speed of transmission, however, has not increased, they added. Covid-19 cases have reduced from 471 to 193 across Maharashtra in the last two weeks, according to officials.
XBB is a combination of Omicron sub variants and, in a statement, the World Health Organisation (WHO) had noted that it did not appear to be more severe than other Omicron sub variants. However, WHO had said that there was early evidence that XBB poses a higher reinfection risk as compared to other sublineages.
“On reviewing data from the last two weeks (November 21 to November 27 and November 28 to December 4), weekly new cases of Covid-19 have reduced from 471 to 293 (37.79 per cent),” Dr Pradeep Awate, Maharashtra surveillance officer, said.
Until now, a total of 186 patients of XBB variant have been found in cities like Mumbai (72), Pune (77), Thane (26), Nagpur and Kolhapur (three each), Bhandara (two), and Akola, Amaravati and Raigad (one each).
Weekly Covid positivity in Maharashtra has reduced from 0.55 to 0.46 per cent. Weekly positivity in Pune, Kolhapur, Jalna, Buldhana and Aurangabad districts is more than 1 per cent. There has been a steady decrease in the number of patients getting hospitalised and needing ICU care, officials said. Out of the total new cases in the week, 3.41 per cent had been admitted in ICUs.
