Patna, Apr 28 (IANS): The health department of Bihar on Thursday detected a new variant of Omicron in Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS).

The new variant BA.12 is 10 times more dangerous than BA.2 which was detected during the third wave of Corona in the country.

Prof Dr Namrata Kumari, the HOD of microbiology department of IGIMS, said: "Keeping in view the rising Covid cases, we had started genome sequencing of samples of Omicron variant of Corona. There were 13 samples tested and one of them had BA.12 strains. The remaining 12 samples have BA.2 strains."

"We have asked the authority for contact tracing of all the positive samples of Omicron. The BA.12 variant is 10 time more dangerous than BA.2. Though, there is no need to worry. Precaution is required here to protect from it," She said.

The BA.12 variant was first detected in the US. There were two to three cases detected in Delhi and now one case in Patna.