Gagandeep Kang

Renowned virologist Gangandeep Kang on Friday said India has reported a few cases of Omicron sub-variants XBB and BF.7, but they have not driven an upsurge, and she does not expect a spike in Covid cases. Her remarks come in the backdrop on the highly transmissible Omicron strains, mostly BF.7, causing a spike in coronavirus cases in many countries, including China. "They are, like all Omicron sub-variants, very good at infecting people because they escape the immune response that prevents infection, but are not causing more severe disease than Delta," the professor at the Christian Medical College's division of gastrointestinal sciences tweeted. Kang said that "at the moment, India is doing fine" but maintained that surveillance should be ensured to "detect signal of any changes in the behaviour of the virus". BF.7 is a sub-lineage of the Omicron variant BA.5 and has the strongest infection ability since it is highly transmissible, has a shorter incubation period and has a higher

In a series of tweets, Kang signalled that the situation in India is not alarming and there are no new variants of the virus

Variants will come because people are travelling. Of what we know of the variant (XE) is that it is not a point of concern, Kang said

Kang is a top virologist

According to Dr Kang, whether people will have more antibodies or be better protected with the booster dose is still not known

Kang said variants are many, but variants that escape immunity are few.

Gagandeep Kang talks about the challenges and thrill of breaking new ground