Covid-19 in Bulgaria: Omicron strain found in all 83 samples – NCIPD
Bulgaria’s National Centre for Infectious and Parasitic Diseases (NCIPD) said on May 12 that it has found the Omicron coronavirus strain in each of the 83 samples taken from Covid-19 patients in the country.
NCIPD said that the samples, taken over a period of time ranging from March 13 to April 22 in 11 out of Bulgaria’s 28 districts, showed that the XBB.1.5 lineage and related subvariants, which NCIPD collectively referred to as XBB.x, was the dominant one in Bulgaria.
XBB.1.5 is a sub-lineage of XBB, which evolved from two earlier lineages of Omicron, with an additional spike change, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
ECDC has currently designated XBB and XBB.1.5-like sublineages as variants of interest and XBB.1.16 as a variant under monitoring.
NCIPD’s latest sequencing dataset showed the XBB.x lineage was present in 65 cases or 78.3 per cent of the samples, compared to 58.9 per cent of the samples in the previous batch sequenced by NCIPD, the results of which were announced on April 20.
The remaining samples were seven cases of the BN.x lineage, five cases of the EG.1 subvariant, three cases of EU.1.1 and one case each of the BQ.1.1.45, DS.2 and EZ.1 subvariants.
As of April 26, four patients in the NCIPD sample group had died, two were in hospital and four were undergoing home treatment, with 73 recovered, NCIPD said.
(Photo: Military Medical Academy)
For the rest of The Sofia Globe’s continuing coverage of the Covid-19 situation in Bulgaria, please click here.
The Sofia Globe’s coverage of the Covid-19 situation in Bulgaria is supported by the Embassies of Switzerland and Finland.
Please support independent journalism by clicking on the orange button below. For as little as three euro a month or the equivalent in other currencies, you can support The Sofia Globe via patreon.com and get access to exclusive subscriber-only content:
