Chennai, March 21: A 27-year-old man who had died of Covid-19 in a private hospital in Tamil Nadu's Tiruchi was infected with the Omicron-XBB variant, officials said on Tuesday. The whole genome sequencing report of the youth confirmed the presence of XBB variant.

Whole genome sequencing done on samples of patients tested Covid-19 positive have found that the two variants of Omicron, XBB and BA.2 and their sub variants were dominant in 95 per cent of the samples. COVID-19 Variant Omicron's XBB Most Prevalent Sub-lineage Circulating All Over India: INSACOG Bulletin.

Tamil Nadu Health Minister Ma Subramanian also told media persons that Omicron continued to be the dominant variant in Covid positive cases in Tamil Nadu. Mumbai: Omicron XBB, XBB.1 Cases Confirmed in Genome Sequencing; Know All About the Sub-Variants Found in COVID-19 Patients.

The Omicron and its sub variants have been present in the Covid samples since December 2021 since the third wave of Covid. It has been dominating the other samples like Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta variants.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 21, 2023 09:13 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).