Sofia, Bulgaria: The National Centre for Infectious and Parasitic Diseases (NCIPD) yesterday confirmed the presence of the BA.5 lineage of the Omicron strain. A total of 88 samples were taken from the COVID-19 patients, out of which the traces of BA.5 lineage of the Omicron variant was reported in Bulgaria.
All of the samples were taken from 16 districts of Bulgaria between the time frame of May 5 to June 3. According to the data shared by NCIPD, the BA.2 subvariant is the dominant one in the nation and has been reported in sixty-seven (67) cases.
The majority of the cases were reported in Sofia city – 53, followed by the districts of Pernik (8), Varna (5) and Montana (4).
Meanwhile, the percentage of the previous sample group accounted for nearly 77.2%. Among the remaining samples reported are the other different five variants of the Omicron strain. This also includes seven cases of the BA.5 lineage.
BA.5 subvariant was initially reported in the South African region in the month of January this year. Following this, the international health agency, World Health Organisation (WHO), put the subvariant as a variant of concern lineage under monitoring.
On the other hand, the COVID-19 morbidity rate in the European country has witnessed a hike in the past weeks, facing a rise in the daily number of COVID-19 cases.
The capital city of Bulgaria, Sofia put in the category of the yellow zone, which means that city contains a morbidity rate between 100 and 249.9 per 100 000 population on a 14-day basis on June 28, 2022. Earlier, Sofia city was in the category of Green Zone.
Apart from this, the European country has also reported three cases of Monkeypox so far. However, the health conditions of these cases have been stated as stable by the healthcare staff. The health ministry of Bulgaria have asked the general public to follow the precautionary measures in order to avoid contracting Monkeypox.