Covid-19 in Bulgaria: Omicron strain found in all 81 samples – NCIPD
Bulgaria’s National Centre for Infectious and Parasitic Diseases (NCIPD) said on August 11 that it has completed the sequencing of the latest group of samples taken from Covid-19 patients in the country, finding the Omicron coronavirus strain in all 81 samples.
NCIPD said that the samples, taken over a period of time ranging from May 1 to June 28 in 18 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 57 cases or 68.7 per cent of the samples, compared to 54.3 per cent of the samples in the previous batch sequenced by NCIPD, the results of which were announced on July 17.
The remaining samples were six cases of the FL.x lineage, five cases each of the EG.x and FY.x lineages, three cases of the EU.1.1 subvariant, two cases of the GB.2 subvariant and one case apiece of the BN.1.3.1, FU.1 and GF.1 subvariants.
The sample group did not have a single case of the EG.x sublineage, which the World Health Organization designated as a variant of interest earlier this week.
As of July 24, six patients in the NCIPD sample group had died, one was in hospital and seven were undergoing home treatment, with 67 recovered, NCIPD said.
(Photo: Military Medical Academy)
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