AS officials fear a resurgence of the coronavirus, the Natio­nal Institute of Health (NIH) has released a clarification that no new variant has been detected in Pakistan so far.

In a statement relea­sed on Tuesday, the NIH said rumours about the new Covid-19 variant were inaccurate.

The variant reported in some areas is XBB, which is an old variant of Omicron and not the BF.7 variant, which is spreading in China, the NIH clarified.

“No case of BF.7 has been detected in Pakistan so far,” it added.

However, the resurgence of the virus and the detection of new cases in Pakistan’s two neighbouring countries — India and China — remains a cause of concern for health authorities.

XBB and BF.7 variants

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the XBB is a variant of the Omicron virus. As per early evidence, the XBB variant had a higher reinfection risk, as compared to other circulating Omicron sublineages.

NIH says new Covid strains not detected in Pakistan; US, China, India detect cases of new variants

The virus that originated from China around the end of 2019 has since mutated into the delta variant, then omicron and its sublineages, which continue to plague the world today, NBC News added.

The BF.7, short for BA.5.2.1.7, is a sub-lineage of the Omicron variant BA.5.

According to NBC News, BF.7 has an R0 or basic reproduction number of 10 to 18.6. This indicates that an affec­ted person could transmit the virus to 10 to 18.6 other people on average. In comparison, Omicron had an R0 of 5.08.

The two are being tracked as variants of concern by authorities in China and the US.

According to a statement by the US Centres for Disease Control (CDC) on Dec 31, around 40pc of confirmed US Covid-19 cases were caused by the XBB.1.5 strain, a relative strain of the XBB variant.

Combined, the two variants make up 44pc of cases in the US, NBC News reported.

The variant not only poses the risk of new cases, but is also feared to be able to bypass the immunity developed by the vaccinations and boosters.

Citing a new study, NBC Boston reported that the XBB is one of the most ‘immune evasive’ variants of Covid-19 to date.

US epidemiologist Eric Feigl-Ding also called XBB.1.5 “the next big one”, saying it is “both more immune evasive & better at infecting” than previous variants.

On January 3, India also reported five cases of the XBB.1.5 variant, the Times of India reported.

Meanwhile, in China, the bulk of new cases is believed to be of the BF.7 variant.

According to CBS News, reports from the country showed that the variant has a higher infection ability and is more transmissible, with a shorter incubation period.

So far, the BF.7 variant has been detected in several other countries around the world including India, the US, the UK and sev­eral European countries such as Bel­gium, Germany, France and Denmark.

According to NDTV, the BF.7 variant results in upper respiratory infection — congestion in the higher parts of the chest — fever, sore throat, runny nose and cough.

Precautions

Even as new strains appear far more rampant and potent than the previous one, experts say vaccines remain the best defence against any future virus wave.

Talking to Sky News, Dr Meera Chand, director of clinical and emerging infection at the UK Health Security Agency said, “It is still as important as ever that people come to take up all the doses for which they are eligible as soon as possible.”

Published in Dawn, january 4th, 2023