2 Covid variants responsible for Covid surge in Asia found in India!

New Delhi: Two Covid variants responsible for new cases in Asia have been found in India.

According to INSACOG data, one case of the newly emerging COVID-19 variant NB.1.8.1 and four cases of the LF.7 variant have been newly detected in India.

As of May 2025, the World Health Organization (WHO) has classified the LF.7 and NB.1.8 subvariants as variants under surveillance, not as variants of concern or interest. These are the variants that have been reported to be responsible for the increase in COVID cases in China and parts of Asia.

According to data from the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG), one case of NB.1.8.1 was identified in Tamil Nadu in April and four cases of LF.7 were detected in Gujarat in May.

In India, the most common variant remains JN.1, accounting for 53 percent of the samples tested, followed by BA.2 (26 percent) and other Omicron sub-lineages (20 percent).

Although the WHO’s preliminary risk assessment classifies NB.1.8.1 as posing a low public health risk globally, its spike protein variants A435S, V445H, and T478I have the potential for increased transmission and immune evasion compared to other variants.

As of May 19, there are 257 active Covid cases in the country.

The situation was recently reviewed in a meeting chaired by the Director General of Health Services and attended by experts from the National Centre for Disease Control, ICMR and other leading health institutions.

However, several regions have reported localized increases. Delhi has registered 23 new cases in the last 24 hours, Andhra Pradesh has reported four cases in the last 24 hours, Telangana has confirmed one and Karnataka has reported 38 Covid cases, while Kerala has reported 273 cases in May.