Covid-19 in Bulgaria: Omicron variant found in 428 of 547 samples sequenced by NCIPD
Bulgaria’s National Centre for Infectious and Parasitic Diseases (NCIPD) said on February 8 that it has found the Omicron coronavirus strain in 428 out of 547 samples taken from Covid-19 patients in the country, with the rest identified as having the Delta strain or its sub-variants.
The samples had been taken over a period of time ranging from January 4 to January 19 and came from 23 out of Bulgaria’s 28 districts.
The Omicron strain accounted for 78.2 per cent of the latest group of samples sequenced by NCIPD, up from 74.6 per cent in the previous batch announced by NCIPD last week, which had samples taken in the same time frame as the latest announcement.
Among the patients with the Omicron strain, 357 were undergoing treatment at home, 24 were in hospital, 44 had recovered and three had died, as of January 25, the NCIPD statement said.
Of the 119 patients with the Delta strain or its subvariants, 68 were undergoing home treatment, 30 were in hospital, 14 had recovered and seven had died, as of January 25.
NCIPD said that among the Omicron cases, the BA.1 subvariant was the dominant one with 277 cases, followed by the BA.1.1 subvariant with 149 cases and two cases of the BA.2 subvariant.
Among the samples that showed the Delta strain of the virus, the AY.43 subvariant was found in 30 cases, AY.4 in 17 cases, AY.4.2.1 in 13 cases and AY.110 in 11 cases. Seventeen other Delta subvariants accounted for the remaining 48 samples sequenced by NCIPD.
The largest number of samples, including both the Omicron and Delta strains, came from the city of Sofia (112), followed by the districts of Plovdiv (77), Stara Zagora (61), Varna (46), Pazardzhik (45) and Blagoevgrad (40).
(Photo: Military Medical Academy)
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