XBB prevalent Covid variant in international travellers, show India's tests

Omicron variant blamed for 40% of all cases being reported in the US

India’s whole genome sequencing (WGS) of international passengers who tested positive for Covid-19 in the last two weeks shows that “XBB” is the most common sub-lineage of the virus among them.

Data released by the Union health ministry on Thursday showed that around 905,647 passengers came to India since December 24, 2022. Around 19,227 samples were tested and around 124 were found to be Covid-19 positive. All the samples that tested positive were sent for WGS, and so far 40 reports have been received.

As many as 14 samples of the 40 were of XBB variant, while BQ1.1, BQ 1.122, BQ 1.1.5