Covid-19 in Bulgaria: Omicron strain found in all 92 samples – NCIPD
Bulgaria’s National Centre for Infectious and Parasitic Diseases (NCIPD) has announced the results of sequencing the latest group of samples taken from Covid-19 patients in the country and said that it found the Omicron coronavirus strain in all 92 samples.
NCIPD said that the samples, taken over a period of time ranging from April 1 to May 4 in 17 out of Bulgaria’s 28 districts, showed that the XBB.1.5 lineage and related subvariants, which NCIPD collectively referred to as XBB.x, remained 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 49 cases or 53.3 per cent of the samples, compared to 78.3 per cent of the samples in the previous batch sequenced by NCIPD, the results of which were announced on May 12.
The remaining samples were 15 cases of the EU.1.1 subvariant, 10 cases of the EG.x lineage, nine cases of the FL.x lineage, four cases of BQ.x lineage and one case each of the BA.5.2.6, BN.1.1.1, CH.1.1, CJ.1.3 and EA.1 subvariants.
As of May 9, 11 patients in the NCIPD sample group had died, 10 were in hospital and nine were undergoing home treatment, with 62 recovered, NCIPD said.
(Photo: Military Medical Academy)
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