NIV says no severe COVID infection caused by new sublineage of Omicron variant

Director of ICMR-National Institute of Virology (NIV) Dr Naveen Kumar has said that even as the active number of cases declined after rising for over a month, the new sublineage of Omicron variant and the recombinant variant did not cause much severe Covid infection. He said that since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the NIV has been tracking the virus and its different variants from its 73 Virus Research and Diagnostic



Laboratory (VDRLs) across the country. 

India has submitted the whole genome sequences to IBDC (Indian Biological Data Centre) and GISAID, a global open-access database. The NIV is also in the process of isolating newer variants, he said, which will be helpful to assess vaccine effectiveness and to support India’s indigenous efforts for vaccine development.