The first BQ.1 sub-variant case detected in Thailand was a foreign national who arrived from China and was admitted to a hospital in Bangkok for treatment at the end of August, says the Department of Medical Sciences (DMS).
The foreign national, 40, was asymptomatic and has fully recovered, Dr Supakit Sirilak, the DMS director-general, said yesterday.
A virus sample was collected from the patient and sent to the Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data (Gisaid) in September.
Gisaid announced the sample tested positive for BQ.1 on Tuesday and declared it the first case of this sub-variant in Thailand.
Dr Supakit said Gisaid was able to determine it was BQ.1 after it had gathered information about virus sub-variants from different parts of the world. This is typical in the virus-tracking process.
However, no native cases of BQ.1.1 have been reported in the kingdom, according to the DMS.
Both BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 are Covid-19 strains to watch although no BQ.1.1 case has been detected in Thailand, Dr Supakit said.
Earlier, the Centre for Medical Genomics at Ramathibodi Hospital cited information from Gisaid, an international genomic database.
The centre said the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had issued an alert on outbreaks of BQ.1 and BQ.1.1, two descendants of Omicron’s BA.5 sub-variant in the US.