With some samples of sewage surveillance in Bengaluru having shown the presence of “possible” BA.4 and BA.5 sub-lineages of Omicron, there is an increased focus on it now.
While top health officials in the State confirmed the presence of these variants in wastewater samples, they said it is yet to be correlated through genome sequencing.
Sewage surveillance is known to help in early identification of any impending wave of COVID-19 and notifying the emergence of new variants of SARS-CoV 2, if any, to initiate local public health actions. Six agencies are involved in sewage surveillance in Karnataka for the last one year. Last month, the Infectious Disease Research Foundation (IDRF) was granted permission to take up sewage surveillance in select sites in Bengaluru city, Bengaluru international airport and Mangaluru airport.
