What we know about the BF.7 coronavirus variant that has triggered fears of a fresh wave of infection

As China grapples with a fresh resurgence of the coronavirus, fears are spreading across the globe of a repeat of the early stages of the pandemic.

India has recently restarted random testing of international passengers, with the fear of a resurgent subvariant - the BF.7 - taking centrestage. Also referred to as Omicron Spawn, the coronavirus variant was first detected in India in October but is now making a comeback.

Here's what we know about the BF.7, so far:


Having stuck around the globe since its emergence in late-2019, the COVID-19 causing virus has had time to evolve and mutate, causing waves upon waves of infections with new variants emerging almost constantly.

With every mutation, viruses create lineages and sub-lineages - much like a flow chart - that help the bug adapt to human innovation. The BF.7 variant of the coronavirus is the same as the BA.5.2.1.7 - a sub-lineage of the Omicron sub-lineage BA.5.

According to a study published in ‘Cell Host and Microbe’ journal, the BF.7 sub-variant has a 4.4-fold higher neutralisation resistance than the original D614G variant — meaning that in a lab setting, antibodies from a vaccinated or infected individual were less likely to destroy BF.7 than the original Wuhan virus that spread worldwide in 2020, reports The Indian Express.

This means that this variant quickly bypasses the body's immunity to the virus, whether attained through previous infection or through vaccination. While a higher neutralisation resistance signifies that there is a higher likelihood of the variant spreading in a population and replacing other variants.

Medicine experts in China have said the variant can be highly infectious and can spread very fast. "Omicron BF.7 has more immune escape capability, a shorter incubation period, and faster transmission rate than other variants found so far," Li Tongzeng, who works at Xiaotangshan Hospital in Beijing told state-run newspaper The Global Times.

BF.7 accounted for more than 5% of US cases and 7.26% of UK cases in October, but there have been no dramatic jumps in infections of the variant reported so far.

While the BF.7 variant has been detected in India as early as October, BA.5 lineages only account for 2.5% of cases in November. As it stands, the most common variant in India is the XBB, accounting for 65.6% of all cases in the past month, according to India’s national SARS-CoV-2 genome sequencing network.

Then why is China struggling? According to experts, this is just a surge from restrictions being rescinded.

"China is now experiencing the typical Omicron surge that other countries have already witnessed, and just like the one Hong Kong saw when it relaxed its restrictions,” the former head of India’s genome sequencing consortium, Dr Anurag Agarwal, told The Indian Express.

Symptoms of the new BF.7 sub-variant are similar to common flu and include cold, cough, fever, body pain, etc. As it is highly transmittable, it spreads to a larger group of people within a short duration.

With inputs from agencies