Coronavirus: First case of highly immune evasive Omicron XBB.1.5 confirmed in India; key points you should know

The first case of Omicron's XBB.1.5 has been confirmed in India. According to INSACOG – the forum set up under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to study and monitor genome sequencing and virus variation of COVID-19 in India – the case has been confirmed in Gujarat.

XBB.1.5 sub-variant has been flagged for a surge in COVID cases and hospitalisations in the US.

XBB was first identified in India in August and quickly became dominant in the country.

Andrew Pekosz, a virologist at Johns Hopkins University, said XBB.1.5 has an additional mutation that makes it bind better to cells. "The virus needs to bind tightly to cells to be more efficient at getting in and that could help the virus be a little bit more efficient at infecting people," Pekosz said.

XBB.1.5 not only evades protective antibodies as effectively as the highly immune evasive XBB.1 variant, but is also better at binding to cells through a key receptor, according to data published on Twitter by Yunlong Richard Cao, a scientist and assistant professor at Peking University.

Maharashtra state public health authorities are now focused on not allowing XBB.1.5 to enter the state due to its proximity to Gujarat.

Dr Pradeep Awate, Maharashtra surveillance officer, told TOI, "We are keeping a watch on the genetic footprints of the virus. The state is carrying out 100% genomic sequencing, while international arrivals are also undergoing thermal screening and random sampling of 2% of these is also being done. Positive samples are then being sent for genome sequencing."

"We have more than 275 cases of XBB in Maharashtra,” Awate added.

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According to new figures published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday, XBB.1.5 makes up 40.5% of new infections across the country. Most of the earliest cases from XBB.1.5 recorded in global databases through early November were sequenced around New York and Massachusetts.

Dr Awate said the way a sub-variant might be behaving in the US could be different from its implications in India due to factors such as immunity and ethnicity.

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Virologist Dr Shahid Jameel said multiple variants over the past one year were all Omicron descendants. "Unless there is a completely new variant lineage, we should not be worried. But we have to be vigilant. The reason is over 90% of adults in India have two doses of a vaccine, 30% have booster doses," he said.

All overseas travelers traveling from China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Thailand to India are now required to submit RT-PCR reports prior to departure. It will also be necessary to upload a report to the Air Suvidha webpage, starting on January 1, 2023.