Wellington, Jul 19 (IANS): New Zealand reported two community cases of Omicron BA.2.75 on Tuesday, the first time this subvariant has been detected in the country.

Both cases are linked to known imported cases and are isolating at home, said the Ministry of Health.

This is in addition to the six BA.2.75 cases previously reported, which are all associated with recent travel overseas, Xinhua news agency reported.

BA.2.75 is a recently identified second generation subvariant of BA.2, the dominant variant circulating in New Zealand at this stage. BA.2.75 has only been recently identified as distinct from BA.2, and evidence on its transmissibility, immune evasiveness and severity is still preliminary and emerging, the ministry said.

New Zealand recorded 10,772 new community cases of Covid and 21 more deaths from the pandemic, it said, adding 348 Covid cases have recently travelled overseas.

Currently, 788 Covid patients are being treated in hospitals, including 20 in intensive care units or high dependency units.

New Zealand has reported 1,508,837 confirmed cases of Covid since the pandemic hit the country in early 2020.