6 Question And Answer Know All about COVID-19 Omicron Subvariant BF.7

COVID-19 Omicron Subvariant BF.7: Hospitals are once again filling up in China. Medicines are running out. Mass funerals are being performed. The reason is the coronavirus spreading like fire. Omicron’s variant BF.7 is responsible for such a fast-spreading infection. WHO officials say that this is the fastest-spreading variant ever.

So let us try to understand the BF.7 sub-variant of Corona creating a ruckus in China.

6 Important Questions And Answer…

Question-1: What is the variant BF.7 of Omicron which is creating a ruckus in China?

Answer: Omicron is a variant of Coronavirus. It has many sub-variants like- BA.1, BA.2, BA.5, etc. One such latest sub-variant of Omicron is BA.5.2.1.7 which is called BF.7 in short.

The BF.7 variant is made of a specific mutation in the spike protein of the coronavirus, named R346T. According to experts, due to this mutation, this variant is not affected by antibodies.

In simple words, if a person has had corona earlier or has got vaccinated, then antibodies are formed in his body. The BF.7 variant is capable of dodging this antibody as well and entering the body.

 

The BF.7 variant is most responsible for the sudden outbreak of corona infection in China. According to medical experts, this variant escapes from the immune system, and the person becomes a spreader as soon as infected and infects people rapidly.

Question-2: What is the R0 of BF.7 compared to other variants of Corona, i.e. how many people can a person infected with it infect?

Answer: The R0 value of BF.7 is 10 to 18.6. That is, a person infected with this variant can infect 10 to 18 people on average. WHO officials believe that this is the highest among all the variants so far. Earlier the R0 value of Delta was 6-7 and the R0 value of Alpha was 4-5.

In China, 800 million people may get corona infected in the next few months. Airfinity, a London-based global health intelligence company, said that there could be 2.1 million deaths after the end of the zero covid policy in China. American scientist Eric Feigel-Ding warned that in 90 days 60% of China’s population i.e. about 800 million people will be infected with Corona.

The high R0 value of BF.7 in China may also be due to the weak immunity of the Chinese. Due to the zero covid policy, the people of China do not have hard immunity like the rest of the world.

 

Question-3: What is the death rate of people infected with the BF.7 variant as compared to other variants of Corona?

Answer: The BF.7 variant of Corona has become uncontrollable in Beijing. American scientist Eric Feigel-Ding has claimed that death figures are being hidden in China. Also, China only links deaths due to respiratory disease and pneumonia to the corona.

China reported 7 deaths from Corona on December 19, but the reality is that cremations are being performed 24 hours a day in Beijing’s crematoriums. In many cities, the waiting list for last rites has reached 2000. For this reason, it is difficult to know the real death rate.

Meanwhile, the Nature.com website has quoted two different pieces of research as to how many people may die in China from the BF.7 variant…

Professor James Wood of the University of New South Wales, Sydney has claimed that the new variant of Corona in China could kill more than one million people in the next few months.

The University of Washington has claimed on the basis of its research that by the end of 2023, 1.6 million people may die in China. Not only this, in March 2023, the possibility of the death of 9 thousand people every day has been expressed.

According to this, as many people were dying every day in India due to Delta Variant, the same number of deaths are now being feared in China due to BF.7.

On June 10, 2021, when the second wave was at its peak, an average of 6,000 people were dying every day in India during the delta wave. In such a situation, there is a possibility of more deaths in China than in the delta variant.

Question-4: Where was the BF.7 variant born and in which countries of the world has it reached so far?

Answer: The first case of the BF.7 variant was found in the Inner Mongolia province of China. Till now this virus has spread in many European countries including India, America, UK, Belgium, Germany, France, and Denmark.

Union Health Minister Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya told that the dangerous Chinese variant BF-7 of Corona had come to India in the month of September. Its symptoms were found in an NRI woman in Vadodara. She had come to Vadodara from America. 2 other people who came in contact with him were also investigated, although their report came negative. Later the woman was cured. Apart from this, two other cases were also found in Ahmedabad and Odisha.

As of December 10 in the US, BF.7 variant had 5.7% of the new cases of Corona. Similarly, 25% of the total corona cases in Belgium, while 10% in France and Germany were of this variant.

Dr. Stuart Ray, deputy director of the John Hopkins Department of Medicine, said that this variant was born due to a change in the spike protein, so the virus easily enters cells. This is the reason why the infection is spreading rapidly.

Question-5: What are the symptoms seen in a person infected with BF.7 variant?

Answer: The symptoms of Omicron variant BF.7 of Corona are also similar to the symptoms of earlier variants of Omicron. This variant affects the upper part of the human respiratory system. Because of this, it is quite fatal for people with weak immune systems. That means he can also die.

Question-6: What is the effect of Covid vaccine on the BF.7 variant?

Answer: Dr. Charu Dutt Arora, infection disease specialist and head of Asian Hospital, Faridabad, told in October that the BF.7 variant is made of a special mutation in the spike protein of the corona, namely R346T. Due to this mutation, the antibody does not affect this variant.

This is the reason why it is adept at dodging the vaccine as well. The emergence of BF.7 and other new variants is worrying, but vaccination is still the best weapon.

Britain has recently approved Moderna’s vaccine-bivalent boosters. This vaccine has been found effective in eliminating all the variants of Omicron along with the original virus of Corona.