Covid-19 in Bulgaria: Omicron strain found in all 92 samples – NCIPD
Bulgaria’s National Centre for Infectious and Parasitic Diseases (NCIPD) said 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 92 samples.
NCIPD said that the samples, taken over a period of time ranging from October 21 to November 15 in 14 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 most frequently-encountered lineage.
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 certain XBB.1.5-like sublineages (such as EG.5 and XBB.1.16.6) as variants of interest and XBB.1.16 as a variant under monitoring. The BA.2.86 subvariant is another variant of interest, according to the ECDC.
NCIPD’s latest sequencing dataset showed the XBB.x lineage was present in 24 cases or 26.1 per cent of the samples, compared to 25.5 per cent of the samples in the previous batch sequenced by NCIPD, the results of which were announced on November 20.
The remaining samples in the latest dataset were 15 cases each of the FY.1.2 and HF.1 subvariants, 10 cases of the EG.x lineage, nine cases of the FL.x subvariant, six cases of the BA.2.86 subvariant, three cases apiece of the GJ.x lineage and the GE.1, HK.3, and HV.1 subvariants, as well as one case of the FU.5 subvariant.
As of December 1, four patients in the NCIPD sample group had died, 15 were in hospital, five were undergoing home treatment and 68 had recovered, NCIPD said.
(Photo: Military Medical Academy)
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