Israel confirms new COVID-19 variant, health officials raise concern

Israel's Health Ministry has confirmed that two people who returned from abroad were found to be carrying a previously unidentified Covid variant. According to the ministry, the virus is a combination of the BA.1 (omicron) and infectious BA.2 variants.

The two patients tested positive after taking a PCR test upon arrival at Ben-Gurion International airport and had mild symptoms such as fever, headaches and muscle aches, local Israeli publication Haaretz reported.

Professor Salman Zarka, Israel's Covid czar, said that the patients were a couple in their 30s who contracted the virus from their infant son.

After their sample was sequenced, Zarka said that there was evidence of the two virus variants linking up, which is a common phenomenon. The two viruses exchange genetic material when they are in the same cell, creating a new virus, he added.

Although Omicron infections have been decreasing in the past week, the rising BA.2 infections have caused concern among Israel's health ministry officials.

As a result, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met with Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz and senior health officials to discuss the situation. Bennett ordered the continued implementation of Israel's mask policy in closed spaces and encouraged the public to get vaccinated with three doses.

The R number, which represents the number of people each coronavirus carrier infects, remains below 1 but has been steadily rising.

On Tuesday, 6,310 people tested positive for COVID-19 in Israel, and 10.9 percent of tests came back positive, according to Haaretz.

Meanwhile, India is reporting a spike in COVID-19 cases with 5,026 active cases. Also, the country has also reported two deaths so far due to the H3N2 variant of the influenza virus. Over 400 cases of H3N2 were reported between January 2 and March 5 in India, per data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.