Odisha govt issues Covid advisory after new Omicron BF.7 strain detected

Odisha government on Wednesday issued instructions for surveillance and whole genome sequencing (WGS) for Covid-19 management in view of the recent explosion of Covid cases in China, Japan, the US, South Korea and Brazil and detection of four confirmed cases of the new Omicron BF.7 strain in four Indian states, including Odisha.

In a statement, the state health department informed that "Omicron BF.7 Covid sub-variant was detected in Odisha, in a single sample tested on 30 September 2022. The RT-PCR testing of this was done on demand, for a female of Khordha district".

"RMRC did the genome sequencing for this sample. At the testing time, it was neither a VOC (Variant of Concern) nor VOI (Variant of Interest). In the 3 months since no other sample of BF.7 has been detected in Odisha," the statement further said.

"The lady tested was asymptomatic at the time of the test. She got tested for her travel to the US. She and her family are in the US since October. None of them has any flu-like symptoms since their departure from India," the statement added.

In a letter to all the authorities, State Health Secretary Shalini Pandit stated, "There is a rise in Covid cases in China, Japan, USA, Korea and Brazil and India is put on alert mode to follow the operational guidelines for revised surveillance strategy in the context of Covid-19 issued by MOHFW in June 2022. In view of the sudden of spurt of cases being witnessed in the above-mentioned countries, it is essential to gear up the disease surveillance and WGS of positive case samples to track the variant through the Indian SARS CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) network(sic)."

The letter further said Covid-19-appropriate behaviour needs to be ensured along with testing, tracking, treating, contact tracing and vaccination.

"Further testing, tracking, treating, contact tracing, vaccination and COVID-19 appropriate behaviour needs to be followed scrupulously to enable timely detection of newer variants and facilitated for immediate containment measures. The samples of positive cases are to be sent on a daily basis to the nearest INSACOG lab (RMRC & ILS, Bhubaneswar). Cluster containment measures to be initiated immediately as per the protocol and guideline of Govt. of India," the letter stated.