BF.7 variant responsible for covid surge in China, variant found in India

China has been going through a surge of Covid-19 caused by the Omicron sub-variant BF.7 and it is being estimated that in the upcoming 3 months more people are going to get affected by this virus, India has now reported 4 cases of the Omicron sub-variant BF.7, 2 from Gujarat and 2 from Odisha.

In Odisha the variant was detected in a sample testing on September 30th, according to the Odisha Health and Family Welfare department the time when the test was done it was neither a ‘variant of concern’ nor ‘variant of interest and since then no other BF.7 samples have been found in Odisha.

In Gujarat the 2 cases were found in Ahmedabad and Vadodara, a 61yr old NRI woman from Sabhanpura area of Vadodara has tested positive with this variant and another man from the Gota area of Ahmedabad had also tested positive with BF.7 but according to the health department of Gujarat both the patients have been treated in home isolation and have recovered fully.

Due to the rise in cases in China the centre has asked all states to send all positive cases for genome sequencing to prevent the spread of the virus and to prepare for the future situation. The spread of this virus is high making early detection and isolation more important.

The symptoms of this strain is sore throat, runny nose, cough, vomiting, diarrhea etc. BF.7 has been detected in many countries like US, Denmark, UK, Germany, France and Belgium. But it is not as dangerous as it is in China, the reason it’s becoming serious in China is due to low immunity of its population.

The government has already started taking effective measures and flights from China have been banned along with all abroad return people are being tested for safety measures.