new delhi a meeting between union health minister mansukh mandaviya along with senior health officials regarding the emergence of omicrons new subvariants is underway in the national capital on tuesday said sourcesaccording to the sources niti aayog member vk paul chairperson of covid19 working group ntagi nk arora ntagi officials negvac officials and other senior health officials as per the official sourcesearlier on tuesday maharashtra recorded a 177 per cent rise in coronavirus cases compared to last week according to a state health department bulletinthe state has reported new covid cases including the xbb a new subvariant of the omicron variant of the sarscov2 virus which has been detected in parts of india including keralaapart from this maharashtra has reported cases from other subvariants of omicron ba2320 and bq1 variant which was detected for the first time in india on monday from the sample of a patient in punexbb a recombinant lineage between two omicron sublineages bj1 and ba275 is a fastspreading variant which was seen to have caused a spike across singapore recentlyas per the maharashtra health department report the xbb has a growth advantage over ba275 and evasive immune propertiesaccording to statistics the new covid cases are expected to increase in the state in the october 1016 period this week by 177 per cent as compared to the period between october 39 this rise is noticed in thane raigad and mumbai says the official release from the health departmentwhile on october 17 india detected its first case of omicrons bq1 subvariant in a sample of a patient from pune the bq1 is a descendant of ba5 which is behind the 60 per cent covid cases in the united states us as per reportssome experts from the health department predicted a rise in the coming winter season especially in a festive environment in whole genome sequencing wgs ba275 decreased to 76 per cent from 95 per centmaharashtras health department and experts have asked not to ignore flulike symptoms and seek medical advice at the earliest they have advised observing covid appropriate behaviour in public places and getting vaccinated as per government of india guidelinesexperts from the department suggest that people with comorbidities need to take extra precautions while visiting public places people suffering from influenzalike illnesses should avoid public contact as much as possiblemeanwhile the kerala government on october 17 held a highlevel meeting under health minister veena george and said it is intensifying preventive measures in view of the new genetic variations of covid19 xbb and xbb1 being reported from other parts of the worldnecessary instructions have been given to all the districts the new strain is more contagious than any other strain of covid19 so far hence the resistance is strengthened about 18 per cent of those infected may require hospital treatment there is no cause for concern at present but everyone should be careful everyone should wear a mask properly for selfprotection masks must be worn by the elderly and those with comorbidities the minister requested