Covid: XBB not worse than Delta, viral message is fake, says govt

NEW DELHI: Have Covid-19 symptoms changed drastically with variation in sub-lineages of the Omicron strain? A message claiming so has gone viral on social media and messaging platforms, prompting the Union health ministry to issue a quick clarification. "#FakeNews This message is circulating in some WhatsApp groups regarding the XBB variant of Covid-19. The message is fake and misleading," the ministry tweeted.The viral message claimed that the subvariant is different, deadly and not easy to detect correctly. "Covid-Omicron XBB is 5 times more virulent than the Delta variant and has a higher mortality rate than it. It takes less time for the condition to reach extreme severity and sometimes there are no obvious symptoms. Let's be more careful!," the viral message added.The fact is that Omicron's sub-variant XBB is not new. It has been detected in several parts of the country recently and it is not causing severe symptoms.According to Insacog, a consortium of 54 laboratories to monitor the genomic variations in SARS-CoV-2, Covid cases caused by XBB and its lineage XBB.1 are mostly mild and similar to other Omicron sub-lineages. "No increase in severity has been noted," Insacog had said in October.XBB was first detected in Singapore and the US. Insacog said even in Singapore, the sub-variant was only causing a modest increase in disease spread and that there had been no report of increase in severity of disease or increase in hospitalisation associated with the variant or its sub-lineage."In the current phase of the pandemic, the SARS-CoV-2 virus is continuously accumulating mutations, some of which might contribute to increased transmissibility and immune evasion resulting in transmission advantage over other variants," Insacog said, asking people to not panic.However, Insacog advised people to adhere to Covid appropriate behaviour, especially in the light of ongoing festivities.